Must all uber-reigning egotistical
egomaniacs nakedly die empty?
Lust gathers in a cold, cold offal;
trails running as if torn, or rendered
totally offensive. The being inside raps
in poorly offered frightened feats--
Another rhapsody to intubate
sleeping toddlers.
~sapphoq
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
WHY CAN'T I OWN A CANADIAN? reprint
All of the following is direct copy and paste and not my own work. It is something that I do wish I had written:
Why Can't I Own a Canadian?
October 2002
Dr. Laura Schlessinger is a radio personality who dispenses advice to people who call in to her radio show. Recently, she said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by a east coast resident, which was posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as informative:
Dear Dr. Laura:
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific laws and how to follow them:When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15:19- 24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.
Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?
I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?
A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?
Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?
Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?
I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? - Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)
I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.
Your devoted fan,
Jim
*many thanks to friend ischade for e-mailing this letter to me as archived at the humanists of utah site on the 'net. ~sapphoq
Why Can't I Own a Canadian?
October 2002
Dr. Laura Schlessinger is a radio personality who dispenses advice to people who call in to her radio show. Recently, she said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by a east coast resident, which was posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as informative:
Dear Dr. Laura:
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific laws and how to follow them:When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15:19- 24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.
Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?
I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?
A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?
Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?
Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?
I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? - Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)
I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.
Your devoted fan,
Jim
*many thanks to friend ischade for e-mailing this letter to me as archived at the humanists of utah site on the 'net. ~sapphoq
Sunday, April 23, 2006
WARNING PAGE
from http://www.godhatesfags.com/ colors, boldface, italics added by sapphoq
SODOMY IS AN ABOMINABLE SIN, WORTHY OF DEATH.
"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." Leviticus 20:13. "Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." Romans 1:32.
See also Leviticus 18:22, Genesis 19, Romans 1:18-32, I Corinthians 6:9-11, I Timothy 1:10, and Jude 7.
SODOMITES ARE PROUD OF THEIR SIN ("GAY PRIDE"), AND IN THAT PRIDEFUL STATE THEY CANNOT REPENT - YOU CANNOT REPENT OF SOMETHING YOU'RE PROUD OF.
"Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD." Jeremiah 6:15.
See also Jeremiah 13:23, Romans 1:24-32, Ezekiel 16:49-50, etc.
THE SODOMITES' ONLY HOPE IS TO HAVE THE UNAMBIGUOUS TRUTH PREACHED TO THEM, AND PERHAPS GOD WILL SOFTEN THEIR HEARTS AND GRANT THEM REPENTANCE TO DEPART FROM THEIR SIN AND NAME THE NAME OF CHRIST. NOT VERY LIKELY, THOUGH, SINCE GOD HAS GIVEN THEM UP.
"Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." II Timothy 2:19. "Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness...unto vile affections...to a reprobate mind." Romans 1:24-28.
See also II Timothy 2:24-26, Psalm 5:5, I Corinthians 6:9-11, Acts 17:30, Jude 22,23, etc.
THERE IS A HELL WHERE ALL IMPENITENT SINNERS WILL RESIDE FOR ALL ETERNITY. THAT INCLUDES SODOMITES (CALLED "DOGS").
"And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." Isaiah 66:24. "For without are dogs..." Revelation 22:15.
See also Mark 9:44, Luke 16:23, Revelation 20:15.
In summary, sodomites are wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly (Gen. 13:13), are violent and doom nations (Gen. 19:1-25; Jgs. 19), are abominable to God (Lev. 18:22), are worthy of death for their vile, depraved, unnatural sex practices (Lev. 20:13; Rom. 1:32), are called dogs because they are filthy, impudent and libidinous (Deut. 23:17,18; Mat. 7:6; Phil. 3:2), produce by their very presence in society a kind of mass intoxication from their wine made from grapes of gall from the vine of Sodom and the fields of Gomorrah which poisons society's mores with the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps (Deut. 32:32,33), declare their sin and shame on their countenance (Isa. 3:9), are shameless and unable to blush (Jer. 6:15), are workers of iniquity and hated by God (Psa. 5:5), are liars and murderers (Jn. 8:44), are filthy and lawless (2 Pet. 2:7,8), are natural brute beasts (2 Pet. 2:12), are dogs eating their own vomit and sows wallowing in their own feces (2 Pet. 2:22), will proliferate at the end of the world bringing final judgment on mankind (Lk. 17:28-30), have been finally given up by God to uncleanness dishonoring their own bodies among themselves, to vile affections, and to a reprobate mind such that they cannot think straight about anything (Rom. 1:23-28), have wholly given themselves over to fornication and gone after strange flesh (Jude 7), must be pulled as faggots from the fire (Jude 23), and have no hope of Heaven unless they repent (Rev. 22:15), which they can't do in their prideful state (Jer. 6:15). They need to hear this truth if they are to have any hope of penitence, faith in Jesus Christ and salvation (I Timothy 4:2-4).
... to find more information on this subject, information on the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, and her picketing ministry, a Gospel memorial to Matthew Shepard, a tribute to Sweden's vile royal family and more religious commentary and opinion on current events... [invitation to enter website].
* * *
Gee, thanks for making all of that so clear to me.
I had no bloody idea that I and my friends were such a threat.
I'll be sure to drop in on the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas
when I am in the neighborhood.
And by the way,
http://www.godhatesshrimp.com!
So nice to know that I am so thoroughly loved by you.
~sapphoq
SODOMY IS AN ABOMINABLE SIN, WORTHY OF DEATH.
"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." Leviticus 20:13. "Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." Romans 1:32.
See also Leviticus 18:22, Genesis 19, Romans 1:18-32, I Corinthians 6:9-11, I Timothy 1:10, and Jude 7.
SODOMITES ARE PROUD OF THEIR SIN ("GAY PRIDE"), AND IN THAT PRIDEFUL STATE THEY CANNOT REPENT - YOU CANNOT REPENT OF SOMETHING YOU'RE PROUD OF.
"Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD." Jeremiah 6:15.
See also Jeremiah 13:23, Romans 1:24-32, Ezekiel 16:49-50, etc.
THE SODOMITES' ONLY HOPE IS TO HAVE THE UNAMBIGUOUS TRUTH PREACHED TO THEM, AND PERHAPS GOD WILL SOFTEN THEIR HEARTS AND GRANT THEM REPENTANCE TO DEPART FROM THEIR SIN AND NAME THE NAME OF CHRIST. NOT VERY LIKELY, THOUGH, SINCE GOD HAS GIVEN THEM UP.
"Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." II Timothy 2:19. "Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness...unto vile affections...to a reprobate mind." Romans 1:24-28.
See also II Timothy 2:24-26, Psalm 5:5, I Corinthians 6:9-11, Acts 17:30, Jude 22,23, etc.
THERE IS A HELL WHERE ALL IMPENITENT SINNERS WILL RESIDE FOR ALL ETERNITY. THAT INCLUDES SODOMITES (CALLED "DOGS").
"And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." Isaiah 66:24. "For without are dogs..." Revelation 22:15.
See also Mark 9:44, Luke 16:23, Revelation 20:15.
In summary, sodomites are wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly (Gen. 13:13), are violent and doom nations (Gen. 19:1-25; Jgs. 19), are abominable to God (Lev. 18:22), are worthy of death for their vile, depraved, unnatural sex practices (Lev. 20:13; Rom. 1:32), are called dogs because they are filthy, impudent and libidinous (Deut. 23:17,18; Mat. 7:6; Phil. 3:2), produce by their very presence in society a kind of mass intoxication from their wine made from grapes of gall from the vine of Sodom and the fields of Gomorrah which poisons society's mores with the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps (Deut. 32:32,33), declare their sin and shame on their countenance (Isa. 3:9), are shameless and unable to blush (Jer. 6:15), are workers of iniquity and hated by God (Psa. 5:5), are liars and murderers (Jn. 8:44), are filthy and lawless (2 Pet. 2:7,8), are natural brute beasts (2 Pet. 2:12), are dogs eating their own vomit and sows wallowing in their own feces (2 Pet. 2:22), will proliferate at the end of the world bringing final judgment on mankind (Lk. 17:28-30), have been finally given up by God to uncleanness dishonoring their own bodies among themselves, to vile affections, and to a reprobate mind such that they cannot think straight about anything (Rom. 1:23-28), have wholly given themselves over to fornication and gone after strange flesh (Jude 7), must be pulled as faggots from the fire (Jude 23), and have no hope of Heaven unless they repent (Rev. 22:15), which they can't do in their prideful state (Jer. 6:15). They need to hear this truth if they are to have any hope of penitence, faith in Jesus Christ and salvation (I Timothy 4:2-4).
... to find more information on this subject, information on the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, and her picketing ministry, a Gospel memorial to Matthew Shepard, a tribute to Sweden's vile royal family and more religious commentary and opinion on current events... [invitation to enter website].
* * *
Gee, thanks for making all of that so clear to me.
I had no bloody idea that I and my friends were such a threat.
I'll be sure to drop in on the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas
when I am in the neighborhood.
And by the way,
http://www.godhatesshrimp.com!
So nice to know that I am so thoroughly loved by you.
~sapphoq
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Internet: The Privatization of the Public Domain
click this ------> Internet: The Privatization of the Public Domain <----- and read it. I thought it was rather interesting stuff. It made me head for the site mention at the end-- http://namespace.autono.net . How about YOU???
~radical sapphoq
~radical sapphoq
Thursday, April 13, 2006
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT
"Dear Mr. President" by Pink (featuring The Indigo Girls) on the album I'm Not Dead
Dear Mr. President,
Come take a walk with me.
Let's pretend we're just two people and
You're not better than me.
I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly.
What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep?
What do you feel when you look in the mirror?
Are you proud?
How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye
And tell me why?
Dear Mr. President,
Were you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
How can you say
No child is left behind?
We're not dumb and we're not blind.
They're all sitting in your cells
While you pay the road to hell.
What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say.
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine.
How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye?
Let me tell you bout hard work,
Minimum wage with a baby on the way.
Let me tell you bout hard work,
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away.
Let me tell you bout hard work,
Building a bed out of a cardboard box.
Let me tell you bout hard work,
Hard work.
Hard work.
You don't know nothing bout hard work,
Hard work.
Hard work.
Oh,
How do you sleep at night?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Dear Mr. President,
You'd never take a walk with me
Would you?
Dear Mr. President,
Come take a walk with me.
Let's pretend we're just two people and
You're not better than me.
I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly.
What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep?
What do you feel when you look in the mirror?
Are you proud?
How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye
And tell me why?
Dear Mr. President,
Were you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
How can you say
No child is left behind?
We're not dumb and we're not blind.
They're all sitting in your cells
While you pay the road to hell.
What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say.
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine.
How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye?
Let me tell you bout hard work,
Minimum wage with a baby on the way.
Let me tell you bout hard work,
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away.
Let me tell you bout hard work,
Building a bed out of a cardboard box.
Let me tell you bout hard work,
Hard work.
Hard work.
You don't know nothing bout hard work,
Hard work.
Hard work.
Oh,
How do you sleep at night?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Dear Mr. President,
You'd never take a walk with me
Would you?
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Americans United: April 2006 Church & State
Americans United: April 2006 Church & State
Americans United for Separation of Church and State newsletter has several interesting articles this month-- including one about the situation in Pennsylvania. Apparently, some churches were told by the I.R.S. to BACK OFF of politicking in the pulpit.Now if only someone could get the word out to the president and some of our politicians to BACK OFF using taxpayer monies to support religious schools and [christian with some jewish and moslem thrown in for good measure] "faith-based" charities and social services programs.
~sapphoq
Americans United for Separation of Church and State newsletter has several interesting articles this month-- including one about the situation in Pennsylvania. Apparently, some churches were told by the I.R.S. to BACK OFF of politicking in the pulpit.Now if only someone could get the word out to the president and some of our politicians to BACK OFF using taxpayer monies to support religious schools and [christian with some jewish and moslem thrown in for good measure] "faith-based" charities and social services programs.
~sapphoq
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
WHY THE HATE
How is it that we can go through life without really absorbing the beauty around us? There is so much of it! How is it that we can go through life hating what we do not understand?
All of us have a right to be here--gay, lesbian, straight, bisexual, transgendered, atheist, polytheist, non-theist, christian, jewish, islamic, hindu, pagan, witch, wiccan, hedgie, b'hai, black, white, tan, brown, red, yellow, pale, dark, crippled, bent, disabled, temporarily abled, tall, short, fat, skinny, nerd, grunge, nuts, sane, addicted, abstinent, poor, rich, middle-class, prisoner, slave, free, .........
We are all here living on this one battered planet. Maybe we should try just a little bit harder to stop killing each other off in the name of religion or politics. Why do we have to use who we are to separate ourselves from other human beings??? People are dieing everyday because WE HATE. We are afraid of each other and so we never really drop the masks and get to really know the spirit inside of the human beings around us. Zenophobia kills. STOP THE HATE.
I know who I am. I know who my neighbors are. Do you? Where is the love? Is there more than love that matters? Why are we so threatened by people who are different than we are, by those who pulsate with a tribal rhythm, by the outcasts and those we judge as contaminated?
When I came out-- as bisexual, as a survivor of a traumatic brain injury, as a witch, as all that I am--I did not stop being a human being. I bleed. Why the hate?
I refuse to live with a lie. I embrace myself. I am asking for no one's permission to be who I am. Why would you think I should have to? I refuse to shutup. I will not go away. None of us are going away!
Human rights for all people. Let us embrace each other and learn to live a full life free from hate and fear of other human beings and of ourselves.
~sapphoq
All of us have a right to be here--gay, lesbian, straight, bisexual, transgendered, atheist, polytheist, non-theist, christian, jewish, islamic, hindu, pagan, witch, wiccan, hedgie, b'hai, black, white, tan, brown, red, yellow, pale, dark, crippled, bent, disabled, temporarily abled, tall, short, fat, skinny, nerd, grunge, nuts, sane, addicted, abstinent, poor, rich, middle-class, prisoner, slave, free, .........
We are all here living on this one battered planet. Maybe we should try just a little bit harder to stop killing each other off in the name of religion or politics. Why do we have to use who we are to separate ourselves from other human beings??? People are dieing everyday because WE HATE. We are afraid of each other and so we never really drop the masks and get to really know the spirit inside of the human beings around us. Zenophobia kills. STOP THE HATE.
I know who I am. I know who my neighbors are. Do you? Where is the love? Is there more than love that matters? Why are we so threatened by people who are different than we are, by those who pulsate with a tribal rhythm, by the outcasts and those we judge as contaminated?
When I came out-- as bisexual, as a survivor of a traumatic brain injury, as a witch, as all that I am--I did not stop being a human being. I bleed. Why the hate?
I refuse to live with a lie. I embrace myself. I am asking for no one's permission to be who I am. Why would you think I should have to? I refuse to shutup. I will not go away. None of us are going away!
Human rights for all people. Let us embrace each other and learn to live a full life free from hate and fear of other human beings and of ourselves.
~sapphoq
VIGILENCE
Imagine a room full of people and one housefly.
Some people will ignore it. Others will wave it away. A few will want to kill it. No matter what reaction any individual has to the housefly, it will still shit every three seconds.
~sapphoq
Some people will ignore it. Others will wave it away. A few will want to kill it. No matter what reaction any individual has to the housefly, it will still shit every three seconds.
~sapphoq
SILENCE IS DEATH and ACTION IS LIFE
I read the comments of Pat Robertson about killing off Caesar Chavez. I've also read that the literalist christians are claiming that they feel "persecuted" for their beliefs. And then that some folks are planning to crash funerals in Tennessee [of gay men who died from AIDS?] shouting about sin killing them off. Geesh.
The United States is becoming a very scarey place. I've been watching all of this and I been thinking about it alot.
Sometime before she died, Audre Lourde said, "Your silence will not protect you." When we are quiet and unassuming, then the "majority" does what it will and we get marginalized as a people and treated as extralegal. Our silence rewards the status quo.
When we get active because we are tired of being treated as second-class citizens and sorry that we ever bought into that "don't ask don't tell" propaganda, then vocal members of the majority start screaming things like:
HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA
and
WITCHES ARE SATANISTS
and
WELFARE BUMS
and
THOSE PEOPLE DONT WANT TO ___________!
Well, dig this.
I'm here to announce that I am one of "those people." I am a homosexual. I am a gay man. I am a lesbian. I am a transgendered person. I am a bisexual. I am a witch. I am a pagan. I am a non-theist. I am a polytheist. I am a "retard." I am "mentally ill." I am homeless. I am a "welfare bum." I have AIDS, Hep C, what have you.
I am the people your parents warned you about!!!
The System is sick!
If people want to scream that I am going to their version of hell or yell about the "homosexual agenda" or the humanist or the godless or about all of us who want THE SAME BASIC RIGHTS THAT THEY HAVE then let them.
I can't fix that. But there are other wars that WE together can win.
I don't agree to surrender my country to people who want to live out their bigoted dreams upon the fabric of our political machinery. It takes one person and a friend to start a revolution.
Change begins with me and gains momentum with us.
We all have a right to LIVE our lives and to VALUE our lives.
now hear this: I AM DONE WITH SILENCE. I AM DONE WITH PASSIVITY. I AM DONE WITH BEING TREATED AS EXTRALEGAL. I AM DONE WITH NOT HAVING THE SAME BASIC CIVIL RIGHTS AS THE IMMORAL MAJORITY. I AM DONE WITH THE CLOSET. I AM DONE WITH HIDING. I AM DONE WITH HAVING OTHER PEOPLE DICTATE WHAT MY BELIEFS AND MY LIFE SHOULD LOOK LIKE. I AM DONE WITH ALL OF THAT.
thank-you.
~sapphoq
The United States is becoming a very scarey place. I've been watching all of this and I been thinking about it alot.
Sometime before she died, Audre Lourde said, "Your silence will not protect you." When we are quiet and unassuming, then the "majority" does what it will and we get marginalized as a people and treated as extralegal. Our silence rewards the status quo.
When we get active because we are tired of being treated as second-class citizens and sorry that we ever bought into that "don't ask don't tell" propaganda, then vocal members of the majority start screaming things like:
HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA
and
WITCHES ARE SATANISTS
and
WELFARE BUMS
and
THOSE PEOPLE DONT WANT TO ___________!
Well, dig this.
I'm here to announce that I am one of "those people." I am a homosexual. I am a gay man. I am a lesbian. I am a transgendered person. I am a bisexual. I am a witch. I am a pagan. I am a non-theist. I am a polytheist. I am a "retard." I am "mentally ill." I am homeless. I am a "welfare bum." I have AIDS, Hep C, what have you.
I am the people your parents warned you about!!!
The System is sick!
If people want to scream that I am going to their version of hell or yell about the "homosexual agenda" or the humanist or the godless or about all of us who want THE SAME BASIC RIGHTS THAT THEY HAVE then let them.
I can't fix that. But there are other wars that WE together can win.
I don't agree to surrender my country to people who want to live out their bigoted dreams upon the fabric of our political machinery. It takes one person and a friend to start a revolution.
Change begins with me and gains momentum with us.
We all have a right to LIVE our lives and to VALUE our lives.
now hear this: I AM DONE WITH SILENCE. I AM DONE WITH PASSIVITY. I AM DONE WITH BEING TREATED AS EXTRALEGAL. I AM DONE WITH NOT HAVING THE SAME BASIC CIVIL RIGHTS AS THE IMMORAL MAJORITY. I AM DONE WITH THE CLOSET. I AM DONE WITH HIDING. I AM DONE WITH HAVING OTHER PEOPLE DICTATE WHAT MY BELIEFS AND MY LIFE SHOULD LOOK LIKE. I AM DONE WITH ALL OF THAT.
thank-you.
~sapphoq
ON DRAGONS
We all have dragons. It may be the next-door neighbor who planted trees right alongside the property line. It may be the boss who micromanages us to death. It may be all the people we used to know who had the nerve to die or the ex- who has the nerve to keep on living. It may be us.
Sometimes we are afraid because of legends which have gotten distorted when passed down through the generations. Dragons when christianized become serpents with legs and wings--demons--otherworldly forces up to no good. Pre-christianity, dragons were fierce and noble beings that represented challenges. With the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game craze [yes I was part of it and loved it!], dragons were judged as 'good' or 'evil' based on their color. Today, some of us have befriended the dragons!
We can befriend our dragons. Whether our dragons are fierce protectors or the demons that haunt us, we can embrace our dragons. The next-door neighbor, the boss, the ex--they're only people just like us. We can lose the feeling of having fire breathed down our necks.
The internal dragons can be tamed and then embraced. They are a part of us. They speak to us from the pages of ancient texts, challenging us to see ourselves for who we are. It is said that we have power over a dragon once we learn his or her name. We can call ourselves by our true names. We can put on the mantle of our own unique power. We can reject the patriarchial notion that confuses true power with control We no longer have to dwell in our panicked unrealistic fears. We can become our own protector dragon.
~sapphoq
Sometimes we are afraid because of legends which have gotten distorted when passed down through the generations. Dragons when christianized become serpents with legs and wings--demons--otherworldly forces up to no good. Pre-christianity, dragons were fierce and noble beings that represented challenges. With the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game craze [yes I was part of it and loved it!], dragons were judged as 'good' or 'evil' based on their color. Today, some of us have befriended the dragons!
We can befriend our dragons. Whether our dragons are fierce protectors or the demons that haunt us, we can embrace our dragons. The next-door neighbor, the boss, the ex--they're only people just like us. We can lose the feeling of having fire breathed down our necks.
The internal dragons can be tamed and then embraced. They are a part of us. They speak to us from the pages of ancient texts, challenging us to see ourselves for who we are. It is said that we have power over a dragon once we learn his or her name. We can call ourselves by our true names. We can put on the mantle of our own unique power. We can reject the patriarchial notion that confuses true power with control We no longer have to dwell in our panicked unrealistic fears. We can become our own protector dragon.
~sapphoq
LET THE SUBWAYS CRUMBLE 10/6/05
NOW after all this freakin' time, someone cares about the subway system in New York City???
NOW cuz the f.b.i. says "it" might be a possible target?? NOW after how many years of underground violence?
I used to live in New Jersey and I was well acquainted with the subway system. My best friend Peggy and I in high school used to sneak down the stairs and under the turnstiles. We went all over the city on the subways. We knew which station sold the best knishes, where to get off for Coney Island or the Bowery, where to find the best hot pretzels, when the next subway was due in, and which stations were impossible to sneak into.
Our parents didn't know any of these things. Our parents didn't know exactly where we were spending our Saturdays. They thought we were taking "the bus" to Manhattan and eating lunch at O'Neill's Balloon. Peggy and I rammed all over the five boroughs enjoying our freedom to go exactly where we wanted to go and do what we wanted to do.
The subways were not safe then. And that was in the early seventies. There were muggings in some of the stations; and pick-pockets. We heard about the rapes though never witnessed one, smelled the urine splashed against the walls of the stations by the winos, peered into the tunnels hoping to glimpse the homeless who were rumored to live there, acted tough so we would be left alone by the knife-wielding thugs. The people of the dark owned the subway system then and they still own it now.
So now that the president has just announced that our soldiers will continue in Iraq until who the fuck knows when; now that more "evidence" has been uncovered; now new york city cares and are going to patrol the subways more heavily. That will help avert another 9/11 type disaster. Yeah, right!
Funny that no one gave two shits about the subways years ago or the high crime rate underground.
~sapphoq
NOW cuz the f.b.i. says "it" might be a possible target?? NOW after how many years of underground violence?
I used to live in New Jersey and I was well acquainted with the subway system. My best friend Peggy and I in high school used to sneak down the stairs and under the turnstiles. We went all over the city on the subways. We knew which station sold the best knishes, where to get off for Coney Island or the Bowery, where to find the best hot pretzels, when the next subway was due in, and which stations were impossible to sneak into.
Our parents didn't know any of these things. Our parents didn't know exactly where we were spending our Saturdays. They thought we were taking "the bus" to Manhattan and eating lunch at O'Neill's Balloon. Peggy and I rammed all over the five boroughs enjoying our freedom to go exactly where we wanted to go and do what we wanted to do.
The subways were not safe then. And that was in the early seventies. There were muggings in some of the stations; and pick-pockets. We heard about the rapes though never witnessed one, smelled the urine splashed against the walls of the stations by the winos, peered into the tunnels hoping to glimpse the homeless who were rumored to live there, acted tough so we would be left alone by the knife-wielding thugs. The people of the dark owned the subway system then and they still own it now.
So now that the president has just announced that our soldiers will continue in Iraq until who the fuck knows when; now that more "evidence" has been uncovered; now new york city cares and are going to patrol the subways more heavily. That will help avert another 9/11 type disaster. Yeah, right!
Funny that no one gave two shits about the subways years ago or the high crime rate underground.
~sapphoq
Monday, April 03, 2006
HALLOWEEN BASHING
I am a witch. I am a pagan. Sam Hain, or "halloween" as most of you call it, is a sacred time of year for me. It is a celebration of the celtic new year.
Some christians have taken to posting anti-hallowee'en sentiments on the internet. I've got news for you. Many of US don't want YOU messing around with OUR holy days either.
Don't want your kids to go trick-or-treating? Fine with me. Teach them NOT to beg.
Believe that your black cats are IN danger? Whatever. Cats and dogs should NOT be allowed to roam free anyways in most places.
By the way, most satanists DO NOT WANT your animals or your children. Get over it. Stop with the lies.
Oh, and people who practice santeria COOK and EAT the chickens and goats they sacrifice. It is far more honest to look a chicken in the eyes and say "I'm going to eat you" before strangling them than it is to go to the supermarket and buy dead meat that has been injected with chemicals so the stupid public will THINK that the "red color" means that is is "fresher."
So, anti-halloweeners-- get over your selves.
And while you are at it, tell your kids you are no longer going to celebrate christmas or easter either. Those holy days too were co-opted from the pagans and the witches.
Some christians have taken to posting anti-hallowee'en sentiments on the internet. I've got news for you. Many of US don't want YOU messing around with OUR holy days either.
Don't want your kids to go trick-or-treating? Fine with me. Teach them NOT to beg.
Believe that your black cats are IN danger? Whatever. Cats and dogs should NOT be allowed to roam free anyways in most places.
By the way, most satanists DO NOT WANT your animals or your children. Get over it. Stop with the lies.
Oh, and people who practice santeria COOK and EAT the chickens and goats they sacrifice. It is far more honest to look a chicken in the eyes and say "I'm going to eat you" before strangling them than it is to go to the supermarket and buy dead meat that has been injected with chemicals so the stupid public will THINK that the "red color" means that is is "fresher."
So, anti-halloweeners-- get over your selves.
And while you are at it, tell your kids you are no longer going to celebrate christmas or easter either. Those holy days too were co-opted from the pagans and the witches.
PARENTS: WATCH WHAT YOUR CHILDREN ARE DOING IN CYBERSPACE!
"Unfortunately, the Internet is full of pornographic, violent, racist, and other hate content that you may not want displayed on IE. I have two kids myself, so I know how important this can be. My daughter loves to play at Barbie.com, but I don't want her accidentally jumping from this safe and fun site to something she doesn't need to see. Unfortunately, nothing is foolproof and I always suggest that you use the Internet with kids in much the same way as you would a public amusement park-- you hold their hands and you watch everything. Let me reiterate this soap box one more time-- leaving children unattended with the Internet is like leaving them unattended to play in the street-- something bad will happen eventually."
from Windows XP Headaches: how to fix common [and not so common] problems in a hurry, second edition, Simmons, Curt, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2005. pp.194-195.
Although I question the phrasing of the author in respect to how much porn is on the internet, I certainly respect the message. As adults, we have responsibility to our children. Get familiar with internet slang so you KNOW what your kids are saying in chatrooms and on messenger services if you decide to let them do these things. Put the computer out in visible shared living space, not up in the kids' rooms. Supervise, supervise, supervise.
I supervise my dog more than some of my past neighbors have supervised their kids.
People have scruples and I have a few of my own. Because sites exist on the internet that YOU find objectionable, it does not follow that ALL sites should be "G-rated."
Adults can hit the BACK button to get out of places where they do not want to be. If you don't like what people are blogging about, you can leave.
If I don't care for a store's policies or merchandise, I can choose not to shop there. Adults, do the same.
Meanwhile, be parents to your children. Teach them NOT to give out their names, addresses, or phone numbers to strangers on-line or off-line. Teach them how to be safe in an unsafe world. BE THERE when they are surfing the net. Teach your values to your children.
DON'T impose them on me.
~sapphoq
from Windows XP Headaches: how to fix common [and not so common] problems in a hurry, second edition, Simmons, Curt, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2005. pp.194-195.
Although I question the phrasing of the author in respect to how much porn is on the internet, I certainly respect the message. As adults, we have responsibility to our children. Get familiar with internet slang so you KNOW what your kids are saying in chatrooms and on messenger services if you decide to let them do these things. Put the computer out in visible shared living space, not up in the kids' rooms. Supervise, supervise, supervise.
I supervise my dog more than some of my past neighbors have supervised their kids.
People have scruples and I have a few of my own. Because sites exist on the internet that YOU find objectionable, it does not follow that ALL sites should be "G-rated."
Adults can hit the BACK button to get out of places where they do not want to be. If you don't like what people are blogging about, you can leave.
If I don't care for a store's policies or merchandise, I can choose not to shop there. Adults, do the same.
Meanwhile, be parents to your children. Teach them NOT to give out their names, addresses, or phone numbers to strangers on-line or off-line. Teach them how to be safe in an unsafe world. BE THERE when they are surfing the net. Teach your values to your children.
DON'T impose them on me.
~sapphoq
STERILIZATION IS NOT DESIRABLE
"Some people just love to morally masturbate in public: they are the ones who oppose any unflattering information in a person's obituary or complain about front-page pictures of someone committing suicide. Graphic pictures of murder victims or undercover investigations compel these souls to complain bitterly to editors abut privacy and fair play, never once questioning whether they actually live in a fair society.'
"The demand for sterilized and happy news adds a layer of protection to fabricators who know how to exploit the situation. . .'
"To get to the truth, privacy will be invaded, authorities will be questioned, images will be raw and audiences will be insulted. It's the only way to shake people out of their slumber..."
from: Don't Believe It! How Lies Become News, Alexandra Kitty, Disinformation Company , New York, 2005. Chapter 17: Being a Savvy News Consumer, pp. 372-373.
"Most people are dead asleep, they can never be awakened. That's why I hate them." Dwid
sapphoq comments:
If nothing offended nobody [an impossible state of affairs imo], the news and the internet [another form of media] would be sterile and unyielding in presenting a false worldview. Investigative reporting would be dead. There would be only one side of every story. Whose side would that be?
Are the people in India really better off because its' government recently blocked some Yahoo content from their computers? Are Internet users going to be better off after the United Nations' conference is held in Tunis, Tunisia of all places ? If the Internet becomes a less wild wooly place-- a place deemed to be non-offensive by the community with the highest "decency standards"-- will we really be better off?
"The demand for sterilized and happy news adds a layer of protection to fabricators who know how to exploit the situation. . .'
"To get to the truth, privacy will be invaded, authorities will be questioned, images will be raw and audiences will be insulted. It's the only way to shake people out of their slumber..."
from: Don't Believe It! How Lies Become News, Alexandra Kitty, Disinformation Company , New York, 2005. Chapter 17: Being a Savvy News Consumer, pp. 372-373.
"Most people are dead asleep, they can never be awakened. That's why I hate them." Dwid
sapphoq comments:
If nothing offended nobody [an impossible state of affairs imo], the news and the internet [another form of media] would be sterile and unyielding in presenting a false worldview. Investigative reporting would be dead. There would be only one side of every story. Whose side would that be?
Are the people in India really better off because its' government recently blocked some Yahoo content from their computers? Are Internet users going to be better off after the United Nations' conference is held in Tunis, Tunisia of all places ? If the Internet becomes a less wild wooly place-- a place deemed to be non-offensive by the community with the highest "decency standards"-- will we really be better off?
PORNOGRAPHY
"The only problem I've found with pornography is that there's not enough good pornography." -Lydia Lunch, 1993
If I want to use the f-word, I can do that in many different ways. I can say it right out, as I did in Montreal in April during a busy weekday lunch hour when I fell in front of a busy restaurant. I can say "eff-ing." I can substitute my mother's favorite word "frig." [For years I wondered why she hated her refrigerator so much...]. I can use the now socially-acceptable word "Funk." [Its' meaning seems to have changed over the years]. I can even get high-falutting in my swearing by yelling out, "Copulation!"
If I want to describe what two naked people do or what a cow and a bull do or what the fruitflies in someone's kitchen are doing, I can call it "f***ing" or "reproducing" or "making love" or "proliferating" or "getting frisky" or "sexing each other up."
I have read many many blogs on Yahoo 360 which speak about intimacy between people. Some of those encounters involve sex between consenting adults. And they are well-written with "redeeming literary value." [the Miller test ]. These blogs are so incredibly well-written that I feel like I have been transported to the scene being described.
A part of my soul dies when agencies, companies, or internet incorporateds make it clear that [they believe that] adults can no longer be trusted to police themselves.
BODY PARTS OF MEN AND WOMEN, SEX, PORN, LESBIANS, GAYS, HOMOSEXUALS, BISEXUALS, TRANSGENDERED, CROSS-DRESSERS, PAGAN, WITCHES, CULTS, DRUGS, ATHEISTS, SEX, NON-THEISTS, SECULAR HUMANISTS, BUSH-HATERS, BUSH-LOVERS, ANTI-WAR RHETORIC, ANTI-GOVERNMENT RHETORIC, PEOPLE AGAINST CENSORSHIP ON THE WEB, SEX, HARRY POTTER, HUCK FINN, TOM SAWYER, BANNED BOOKS[BETTER DEAD THAN WELL-READ], HALLOWEEN, DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS, LIBERTARIANS, CONSERVATIVES, LIBERALS, COMMIES, SEX, ILLEGAL, CRACK, CURSING, CURSES, MISTER ROGERS, MICHAEL JACKSON, KKK, HATE, HATE CRIMES, ACLU, AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE, INTER-SPECIES LOVE, SEX, DRINKING, EQUIPMENT FOR ILLEGAL DRUGS, GAMBLING, DANCING, SEX, PLAYING CARDS, TAROT, OUIJA, VOUDON, HOLLY NEAR-QUEER, QUEER NATION, ACT-UP, ACTING OUT, RITALIN, TELEVISION, PRINT IS DEAD, GHOSTS, ALIENS, CORPSES, PUS, THROW-UP, SMUT, NUDIES, PIN-UP LADIES, BURNING BRAS, SEX, CHURCH, SATANIC, DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS, SPIRIT GUIDES, SEANCES, SEX, PRIDE, LUST, BOOK BURNINGS, SEX, ORAL ROBERTS AND HIS LITTLE BROTHER ANAL, THE MONA LISA, MODERN ART, OLD ART, NUDES IN ART AND SCULPTURE, FRENCH FRIES, IRAQ, IRAN, THE WAR ON TERROR, THE WAR ON DRUGS, THE WAR ON OUR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, SEX, THE WAR ON WARS, GIVE PEACE A CHANCE [A MAN BOUGHT THAT SHIRT AT THE CROSSGATES MALL IN COLONIE ny AND WAS THEN ARRESTED FOR WEARING THAT SHIRT AT THAT MALL IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS], JOIN THE ARMY, DONT RECRUIT, DONT ASK, DONT TALK, DONT TELL, SEX, FREEDOM FRIES, HURRICANES.
Surely in the above list, there is at least one word that every individual reading this blog finds "offensive."
If not, please let me know right away and I will include YOUR special word on the next list.
Pornography exists. Some of us like it. Get over it.
~sapphoq
If I want to use the f-word, I can do that in many different ways. I can say it right out, as I did in Montreal in April during a busy weekday lunch hour when I fell in front of a busy restaurant. I can say "eff-ing." I can substitute my mother's favorite word "frig." [For years I wondered why she hated her refrigerator so much...]. I can use the now socially-acceptable word "Funk." [Its' meaning seems to have changed over the years]. I can even get high-falutting in my swearing by yelling out, "Copulation!"
If I want to describe what two naked people do or what a cow and a bull do or what the fruitflies in someone's kitchen are doing, I can call it "f***ing" or "reproducing" or "making love" or "proliferating" or "getting frisky" or "sexing each other up."
I have read many many blogs on Yahoo 360 which speak about intimacy between people. Some of those encounters involve sex between consenting adults. And they are well-written with "redeeming literary value." [the Miller test ]. These blogs are so incredibly well-written that I feel like I have been transported to the scene being described.
A part of my soul dies when agencies, companies, or internet incorporateds make it clear that [they believe that] adults can no longer be trusted to police themselves.
BODY PARTS OF MEN AND WOMEN, SEX, PORN, LESBIANS, GAYS, HOMOSEXUALS, BISEXUALS, TRANSGENDERED, CROSS-DRESSERS, PAGAN, WITCHES, CULTS, DRUGS, ATHEISTS, SEX, NON-THEISTS, SECULAR HUMANISTS, BUSH-HATERS, BUSH-LOVERS, ANTI-WAR RHETORIC, ANTI-GOVERNMENT RHETORIC, PEOPLE AGAINST CENSORSHIP ON THE WEB, SEX, HARRY POTTER, HUCK FINN, TOM SAWYER, BANNED BOOKS[BETTER DEAD THAN WELL-READ], HALLOWEEN, DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS, LIBERTARIANS, CONSERVATIVES, LIBERALS, COMMIES, SEX, ILLEGAL, CRACK, CURSING, CURSES, MISTER ROGERS, MICHAEL JACKSON, KKK, HATE, HATE CRIMES, ACLU, AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE, INTER-SPECIES LOVE, SEX, DRINKING, EQUIPMENT FOR ILLEGAL DRUGS, GAMBLING, DANCING, SEX, PLAYING CARDS, TAROT, OUIJA, VOUDON, HOLLY NEAR-QUEER, QUEER NATION, ACT-UP, ACTING OUT, RITALIN, TELEVISION, PRINT IS DEAD, GHOSTS, ALIENS, CORPSES, PUS, THROW-UP, SMUT, NUDIES, PIN-UP LADIES, BURNING BRAS, SEX, CHURCH, SATANIC, DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS, SPIRIT GUIDES, SEANCES, SEX, PRIDE, LUST, BOOK BURNINGS, SEX, ORAL ROBERTS AND HIS LITTLE BROTHER ANAL, THE MONA LISA, MODERN ART, OLD ART, NUDES IN ART AND SCULPTURE, FRENCH FRIES, IRAQ, IRAN, THE WAR ON TERROR, THE WAR ON DRUGS, THE WAR ON OUR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, SEX, THE WAR ON WARS, GIVE PEACE A CHANCE [A MAN BOUGHT THAT SHIRT AT THE CROSSGATES MALL IN COLONIE ny AND WAS THEN ARRESTED FOR WEARING THAT SHIRT AT THAT MALL IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS], JOIN THE ARMY, DONT RECRUIT, DONT ASK, DONT TALK, DONT TELL, SEX, FREEDOM FRIES, HURRICANES.
Surely in the above list, there is at least one word that every individual reading this blog finds "offensive."
If not, please let me know right away and I will include YOUR special word on the next list.
Pornography exists. Some of us like it. Get over it.
~sapphoq
DEAR YAHOO
Dear Yahoo,
I wrote you a letter awhile back notifying you that your spamblocker blocks your own e-cards from getting through.
You wrote me back a form letter indicating that I can use spamblocker to prevent spam from getting into my e-mail box.
Customer service is dead.
sincerely,
spike q
********* **********
Dear Yahoo,
I wrote you a letter asking you to give us a splash page for our 360s that we can use to indicate that we are adults blogging about adult topics.
You kicked more people off of 360 and gave a splash page to one of the e-groups instead-- the one that uses the word "bisexual" in its title and merely lists when the bi brunch is in the area.
Customer service is dead and buried.
sincerely,
spike q
***** ***** ***** *****
Dear Yahoo,
I wrote you a letter awhile back about a porno-spam letter I had received. It was in German, a language I have never studied and which my husband tells me I hopeless butcher everytime he tries to teach me a few words of.
The spam letter originated from a yahoo e-mail addy in Germany.
Your literature says to tell you if spammers are using yahoo addys. I did tell you.
You sent me a form letter about using the spam filters IN GERMAN.
Customer service is a rotting corpse.
sincerely,
spike q
**********************************************************************
Dear Yahoo,
I sent you a letter offering my talents to you. As a consumer of computer services, I can certainly tell you what works and what doesn't.
I sent the same letter to M$.
Is it any wonder that neither of you responded? The nice doctors here reassure me that I have only a minor disturbance of my psyche. They tell me that just as soon as I realize the futility of my obsession with customer service being non-existent I will begin to improve. Somehow all of the pretty colored pills they give me are supposed to help me do that.
To which I say, "Basta!" As soon as I get out of this here looney bin, I'm going to start my own company.
sincerely,
spike q
I wrote you a letter awhile back notifying you that your spamblocker blocks your own e-cards from getting through.
You wrote me back a form letter indicating that I can use spamblocker to prevent spam from getting into my e-mail box.
Customer service is dead.
sincerely,
spike q
********* **********
Dear Yahoo,
I wrote you a letter asking you to give us a splash page for our 360s that we can use to indicate that we are adults blogging about adult topics.
You kicked more people off of 360 and gave a splash page to one of the e-groups instead-- the one that uses the word "bisexual" in its title and merely lists when the bi brunch is in the area.
Customer service is dead and buried.
sincerely,
spike q
***** ***** ***** *****
Dear Yahoo,
I wrote you a letter awhile back about a porno-spam letter I had received. It was in German, a language I have never studied and which my husband tells me I hopeless butcher everytime he tries to teach me a few words of.
The spam letter originated from a yahoo e-mail addy in Germany.
Your literature says to tell you if spammers are using yahoo addys. I did tell you.
You sent me a form letter about using the spam filters IN GERMAN.
Customer service is a rotting corpse.
sincerely,
spike q
**********************************************************************
Dear Yahoo,
I sent you a letter offering my talents to you. As a consumer of computer services, I can certainly tell you what works and what doesn't.
I sent the same letter to M$.
Is it any wonder that neither of you responded? The nice doctors here reassure me that I have only a minor disturbance of my psyche. They tell me that just as soon as I realize the futility of my obsession with customer service being non-existent I will begin to improve. Somehow all of the pretty colored pills they give me are supposed to help me do that.
To which I say, "Basta!" As soon as I get out of this here looney bin, I'm going to start my own company.
sincerely,
spike q
"BAD" WORDS!!! or, what's in a name
Names are very powerful things. Until we can give a name to the source of our problems or perceived problems, we cannot hope for any realistic change. Until we can name ourselves for who we are, we cannot truly celebrate ourselves. Many of us stumbled through life or wasted time searching for elusive treasures and we didn't know that what we were seeking was buried deep inside of our most inner selves. Naming what "it" is creates a source of power-- a source of connection from which meaning can then spring.
When I first named myself an addict; as a human being who had addiction, I did not know anything about true power. I knew about control. I knew about the controlling techniques of others around me. I had to learn power. I had to become teachable, a student of power. As I came into my own recovery, I began to understand that the notion that I am "powerless over everything" is a damming lie.
When I first stumbled innocently onto the Yahole 360 world, I knew about censorship issues on the internet but for a time I was blissfully unaware of the censorship issues being experienced by other adult bloggers here. In the days to follow, I had to become willing to have my awareness heightened. I was outraged by Yahole's practice of yanking blogs and photos. In response, I joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation, specifically because the EFF addresses bloggers' rights.
I did write Yahole a letter requesting that 360 bloggers be allowed to have a splash page. I thought a splash page was a better option than the yanking of the intellectual property of my blogger buddies. That letter went unanswered to date.
I do belong to a bisexual network Yahole e-group which is not a "pick-up" group. There is a group file that goes out twice a month reminding us of a bisexual brunch. Occasionally someone will forward an article of interest or post something to the other group members. In a land of controversy, this particular group is no big shakes.
Recently, I did notice that access to the home page of said group is now blocked by a splash page in which the user has to indicate by pushing the "I accept" button that the user is of adult age and willing to view adult material. This is laughable. The only thing that can possibly be construed to be 'objectionable' about our group is the use of the word BISEXUAL in the title.
After checking with the group owner, I was able to ascertain that said splash page came unbidden and unannounced. It was not something that the owner requested or ordered. In fact, the owner did not know of its' existence until I told her.
Names are powerful. Because the name "bisexual" has power, a response was generated by an outsider [Yahole] to attempt to put the reins on or control that power.
BISEXUAL. BISEXUAL. BISEXUAL.
I might just have to go wash my mouth out with soap now.
THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS THE WAY THEY SEEM
In December of 2005, I had a unique opportunity to visit a zoo in the middle of nowhere. The zoo-keepers hand-raised most of the animals-- including the tigers-- in their own home from cubs. The tigers and lions were all trained to walk on leashes. During my visit, a tiger snuffled my hand, a white wolf cub let me hold her and she licked my face, I got to rub a baby alligator's tummy, and I held banana slices for a squirrel-monkey to take. All of the animals had names and relationships with everyone who worked there.
Before visiting the zoo, I possessed many of the typical stereotypes of zoos, zoo-keepers, and tigers. While I was there, a state official dropped in. The state official was not well-acquainted with the interactions between the zoo workers and the animals. That was obvious from the first. The state official was upset because there was a photograph of a woman kissing one of the tigers in the backseat of a car. The tiger was unrestrained. Horrors! In actuality, the woman and the tiger had mutual respect for each other's space. The tiger was on his way to the vet because he has suffered a seizure. The state official-- whose job it is to enforce "the laws" concerning the tigers and other animals at the zoo-- was thoroughly unacquainted with the evidence presented before him. He is suffering from his own stereotypes and he does not know it nor does he care.
All of us are victimized by our own prejuidices, stereotypes, and false beliefs. This is true especially when it concerns other human beings who we refuse to have genuine relationships with because they have been identified as "other" or "different" or "stranger." We are xenophobic. We allow our own refusal to embrace the "other" in our selves to translate in a refusal to examine other evidence set before us.
Thus, words become "dirty," censorship is cleverly disguised on the internet as "policies," and religious people can freely publicize such messages as "love the sinner, hate the sin." All of these things are ways to attempt control over people, ideas, and concepts that have true power. True power is knowing what our own fears are about "the other" and choosing to embrace those fears until they crumble.
As my fears of the "other" crumbled at the zoo, I was able to perceive a different way of being. A woman kissing a sick unrestrained tiger in the backseat of a car on the way to a vet became a reality that opened up endless possibilities. If I had allowed myself to cling to my own false ideas, I would not have known the joy of a tiger snuffling my hand.
-spike q
p.s. did you know that peacocks can FLY?
DEFINITIONS
TOLERANCE ,DIVERSITY , AND CENSORSHIP
TOLERANCE: a personal decision springing from the recognition that our diversity is our strength. [vs. xenophobia]
DIVERSITY: traits or characteristics or stuff that marks us as individuals. [vs. stereotyping]
CENSORSHIP: one of the ways that an
in-group [group of people who are perceived of as having privileges they did not earn by virtue of membership in the group] attempts to keep an
out-group [group of people who are perceived of being "less than" as a whole by virtue of differences of race, class, gender, sexual practices, orientation, politics, religion, appearance, poverty, abilities, beliefs, or lack of]
OUT OF
educational or employment opportunities ,
select neighborhoods ,
or any other public arena--
including fair and accurate media coverage ,
legal remedies , and
self-expression. [vs. freedom of speech, movement, and being for all peoples]
INCLUSION: breaking down the barriers [be they physical or other] between the in-group and the out-groups; sharing the wealth and the power and the privilege; extending welcome to all members of a community.
COMMUNITY: a group of people who practice inclusion.
TRANSGENDERIST and BdsM DISCRIMINATION
TRANSGENDERIST: human being who is a transsexual, crossdresser, or other gender variant [including but not limited to intergender status or intersex states].
TRANSSEXUAL: one who does not identify with the gender assigned at birth.
CROSSDRESSER: one who likes to dress in clothing of 'the opposite gender.'
GENDER VARIANT: one who expresses variants of their assigned birth gender.
INTERSEX STATE: a baby born with sexual characteristics of both male and female. Many babies with intergender status [intersex states] have androgen insufficiency syndrome and thus are assigned female.
MALE/FEMALE: assigned societal gender roles based on presence or absence of a "Y" chromosome.
GENDER ORIENTATION: may be male, female, androgynous, or other variation. How an individual perceives themselves to be, regardless of physical characteristics.
SEXUAL ORIENTATION: heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, asexual. A transgenderist may be of any sexual orientation.
Transgenderists are widely misunderstood, classified as "sick," discriminated against in the provision of health care, and MURDERED for their state of being.
This blog is in remembrance of those transgenderists who have paid the ultimate price; and in support of my blogging buddies who are transgenderists. I celebrate your lives and mourn the deaths of those who have been killed by violence and by societal ignorance.
For more info, please goto http://www.transgenderlaw.org
BdsM discrimination also does exist. This blog is also in support of some of my blogging buddies who are members of the BdsM community and thus may be active in the BdsM lifestyle or any variants thereof. I support the rights of two or more consenting adults to do and live as they wish. More info can be found at http://www.bdsmrights.com.
When someone is fired from their employment due to their adult expression of their sexuality, something is WRONG
Respectfully Yours in the Struggle,
~sapphoq
TRANSSEXUAL: one who does not identify with the gender assigned at birth.
CROSSDRESSER: one who likes to dress in clothing of 'the opposite gender.'
GENDER VARIANT: one who expresses variants of their assigned birth gender.
INTERSEX STATE: a baby born with sexual characteristics of both male and female. Many babies with intergender status [intersex states] have androgen insufficiency syndrome and thus are assigned female.
MALE/FEMALE: assigned societal gender roles based on presence or absence of a "Y" chromosome.
GENDER ORIENTATION: may be male, female, androgynous, or other variation. How an individual perceives themselves to be, regardless of physical characteristics.
SEXUAL ORIENTATION: heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, asexual. A transgenderist may be of any sexual orientation.
Transgenderists are widely misunderstood, classified as "sick," discriminated against in the provision of health care, and MURDERED for their state of being.
This blog is in remembrance of those transgenderists who have paid the ultimate price; and in support of my blogging buddies who are transgenderists. I celebrate your lives and mourn the deaths of those who have been killed by violence and by societal ignorance.
For more info, please goto http://www.transgenderlaw.org
BdsM discrimination also does exist. This blog is also in support of some of my blogging buddies who are members of the BdsM community and thus may be active in the BdsM lifestyle or any variants thereof. I support the rights of two or more consenting adults to do and live as they wish. More info can be found at http://www.bdsmrights.com.
When someone is fired from their employment due to their adult expression of their sexuality, something is WRONG
Respectfully Yours in the Struggle,
~sapphoq
BIGOTS
We are afraid. We do not understand. This is the way we've always done it. This is who we are. This is how we live. This is our world. If you don't like it, get out. Not in my backyard [NIMBY]. You people. Some of my best friends are ____________ . They don't bother anyone. They keep to themselves. They are not our kind. Stay away from my daughter. The other side of the tracks. The wrong side of the tracks. The other. The stranger. I just don't like you. The back of the bus. The handicapped bus. The handicapped parking space. G-d made you get sick and you're gonna die. Don't ask don't tell. Why do they always have to show off? It's none of my business what they do in bed. Love the sinner but hate the sin. I'm not prejuidiced. I love everyone. Get your hands off of me. You smell. What are you, some kind of a ______? Lazy bums. Parasites. Living off of the system. That's my tax money. Go back to where you came from...
I grew up with these things. I fought them viciously as a child and teenager. Now even today, I continue to battle with my own prejuidices and bigotry.
I grew up with these things. I fought them viciously as a child and teenager. Now even today, I continue to battle with my own prejuidices and bigotry.
SONG THAT CHANGED MY LIFE
~in answer to owly~
I grew up in the days of Peter, Paul, and Mary's "Puff the Magic Dragon" and the folksong "Five Thousand Miles." As a hippie wanna-be, it was predictable that I would gravitate towards Bob Dylan music. As a child of divorce, domestic violence, alcoholism, and extreme prejuidice, I rebelled into their opposites. I wanted safety and stability and I could find neither growing up in my mother's household. I tried religion. I went through many christian churches. I found them lacking in a certain edginess that was part of my personality. I found the drug users and I used too. Even then, I was afraid of addiction. I thought alcoholics drank wine at home so I drank beer out. I identified with the counter-culture but I was too stoned to move. I found friends and party buddies that I could not bring home to my mom or to my dad. Many of them could not bring me to meet their parents either.
When I found that I had to get clean or go on living in the chains of addiction, I got clean. In getting and staying clean, that the certain edginess in my personality-- true radical stuff-- was still there. It was not part of my mask or my public personna. It was real. Today I claim that part of me and I celebrate it. I have come out of the bondage of active addiction into the freedom of me. My friends became other radicals involved in systems change.
I learned through much of my life that when others judged me, I always came up lacking in their eyes. Today I am learning that when I judge others, they come up lacking in my eyes. My quickness to judge others was learned behavior leftover from my childhood fears of those who are "different" and "the other" as taught to me by the adults around me. I find that it is another layer of uprooting prejuidice and bigotry from my own life.
And who are my friends? My friends are the radicals, the people I could never bring home to mom or to dad when I was younger, the sexual outlaws, the extralegals, people who are not protected by the laws of american society yet are expected to pay taxes and shut up and not be seen or heard. Passing is painful and at too great a personal cost. I have been involved in protests [Now protests are called "actions." I protest this.] with ACT-UP and with QUEER NATION. I have gone out en masse with my transgendered brothers and sisters in order to force those around us to acknowledge that we exist. I am willing to be mistaken for 'one of them' in the name of building community. I have spoken up when I hear "those jokes." I have stopped laughing. I am no longer willing to live the lie.
I am a bisexual woman. I am not a monosexual.
I am a pagan witch. I am not a christian.
I am a survivor of traumatic brain injury. I am not brain dead.
The song "The Times They Are A-Changin' " written by Bob Dylan spoke to my true nature way back when. It still does today.
-sapphoq
THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN' by Bob Dylan (c) 1963, renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.
http://bobdylan.com/songs/times.html
I grew up in the days of Peter, Paul, and Mary's "Puff the Magic Dragon" and the folksong "Five Thousand Miles." As a hippie wanna-be, it was predictable that I would gravitate towards Bob Dylan music. As a child of divorce, domestic violence, alcoholism, and extreme prejuidice, I rebelled into their opposites. I wanted safety and stability and I could find neither growing up in my mother's household. I tried religion. I went through many christian churches. I found them lacking in a certain edginess that was part of my personality. I found the drug users and I used too. Even then, I was afraid of addiction. I thought alcoholics drank wine at home so I drank beer out. I identified with the counter-culture but I was too stoned to move. I found friends and party buddies that I could not bring home to my mom or to my dad. Many of them could not bring me to meet their parents either.
When I found that I had to get clean or go on living in the chains of addiction, I got clean. In getting and staying clean, that the certain edginess in my personality-- true radical stuff-- was still there. It was not part of my mask or my public personna. It was real. Today I claim that part of me and I celebrate it. I have come out of the bondage of active addiction into the freedom of me. My friends became other radicals involved in systems change.
I learned through much of my life that when others judged me, I always came up lacking in their eyes. Today I am learning that when I judge others, they come up lacking in my eyes. My quickness to judge others was learned behavior leftover from my childhood fears of those who are "different" and "the other" as taught to me by the adults around me. I find that it is another layer of uprooting prejuidice and bigotry from my own life.
And who are my friends? My friends are the radicals, the people I could never bring home to mom or to dad when I was younger, the sexual outlaws, the extralegals, people who are not protected by the laws of american society yet are expected to pay taxes and shut up and not be seen or heard. Passing is painful and at too great a personal cost. I have been involved in protests [Now protests are called "actions." I protest this.] with ACT-UP and with QUEER NATION. I have gone out en masse with my transgendered brothers and sisters in order to force those around us to acknowledge that we exist. I am willing to be mistaken for 'one of them' in the name of building community. I have spoken up when I hear "those jokes." I have stopped laughing. I am no longer willing to live the lie.
I am a bisexual woman. I am not a monosexual.
I am a pagan witch. I am not a christian.
I am a survivor of traumatic brain injury. I am not brain dead.
The song "The Times They Are A-Changin' " written by Bob Dylan spoke to my true nature way back when. It still does today.
-sapphoq
THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN' by Bob Dylan (c) 1963, renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.
http://bobdylan.com/songs/times.html
HOMOSEXUALITY QUOTATIONS
click here for some-------->INTERESTING QUOTES<------- about homosexuality.
And yes folks, it is true that some state constitutions expressedly forbid people who do not believe in a singular deity to hold public office. and some state constitutions require incoming politicians to swear an oath to god before taking office.
The website http://www.religioustolerance.org is maintained by some folks in ontario canada who believe in religious tolerance as defined by living peaceably with all peoples regardless of their religions or non-religions. [They say it better than I can.] The site is fully searchable. From the homepage, one can jump to learning about beliefs of people from other religions, reading news dealing with religious issues, or contributing an essay of their own. The website is balanced in that it does not present only "one" viewpoint.
The organization is also in dire need of monetary contributions if anyone feels so inclined.
HEALING THE MASSES
When I was [way] younger, I fancied myself as having a calling to a christian healing ministry a la Kathryn Kuhlman. Anyone remember her? Fortunately for me, I got over that delusion.
Those were the nights of riding around Newark, New Jersey listening to preachers on the radio exhorting the faithful to, "Place your hand upon the radio and feel the Holy Ghost coming through the airwaves!" Oh what a time that was...
Then came the days of ministries springing up claiming that Jesus can cure people out of their homosexual lifestyles and into a heterosexual married one. The idea itself was nothing new. In the seventies, Teen Challenge was running a program out of Flatbush in Brooklyn and there were a few people there who claimed to be "ex-gays" as well as having been delivered from the bondage of drug addiction and gang wars through fundamentalistic christianity.
What we have now though are the final death-rattles of entire programs devoted specifically to applying spiritual band-aids to human beings who are hurting because they are gay and living in a society of xenophobes. We had one such program in Albany, New York in 1987 I believe it was. Interesting enough, the program was held on the second floor of a building halfway between the Last Straw [a gay juice bar with a continual showing of two gay men taking off their sailor hats and then...it was a really bad film...but anyone who was in the Last Straw really was on their last straw] and the Warehouse where all the leather gay men and a few lesbian pool hustlers hung out.
Unfortunately, the "ex-gay" leaders of such ministries frequently fell back into the 'wiles' of their homosexuality and usually with their customers. When the venerable and the vulnerable got together, the results were not good.
The healing that was really needed-- the healing of a society that is afraid of the 'other'-- was buried under the lie of the offering of social acceptability. True healing is not a cure.
Blessings to all of us. May we all find the true healing that knows no artificial boundaries or creed.
~sapphoq
Those were the nights of riding around Newark, New Jersey listening to preachers on the radio exhorting the faithful to, "Place your hand upon the radio and feel the Holy Ghost coming through the airwaves!" Oh what a time that was...
Then came the days of ministries springing up claiming that Jesus can cure people out of their homosexual lifestyles and into a heterosexual married one. The idea itself was nothing new. In the seventies, Teen Challenge was running a program out of Flatbush in Brooklyn and there were a few people there who claimed to be "ex-gays" as well as having been delivered from the bondage of drug addiction and gang wars through fundamentalistic christianity.
What we have now though are the final death-rattles of entire programs devoted specifically to applying spiritual band-aids to human beings who are hurting because they are gay and living in a society of xenophobes. We had one such program in Albany, New York in 1987 I believe it was. Interesting enough, the program was held on the second floor of a building halfway between the Last Straw [a gay juice bar with a continual showing of two gay men taking off their sailor hats and then...it was a really bad film...but anyone who was in the Last Straw really was on their last straw] and the Warehouse where all the leather gay men and a few lesbian pool hustlers hung out.
Unfortunately, the "ex-gay" leaders of such ministries frequently fell back into the 'wiles' of their homosexuality and usually with their customers. When the venerable and the vulnerable got together, the results were not good.
The healing that was really needed-- the healing of a society that is afraid of the 'other'-- was buried under the lie of the offering of social acceptability. True healing is not a cure.
Blessings to all of us. May we all find the true healing that knows no artificial boundaries or creed.
~sapphoq
STUFF TO STIR UP THE THINKER
"...[the colonialists] have deluded people into believing that the ulema of Islam are not qualified to interfere in the political and social affairs." *Ayatollah Rohollah Khomeini
"If you vote for Al smith, you're voting against Christ and you will all be damned." *Sermon, first Baptist Church in Oklahoma City September 1928
"The Supreme Court of the United States of America is an institution damned by God Almighty." *Reverend Jimmy Swaggert, in Washington D.C., February 4, 1986
"Now the catholic bishops have upped the ante, indicating that voting for a candidate with Mr. Kerry's policies could lead to eternal damnation." *Maureen Dowd, op-ed columnist in the New York Times, 10/17/04
"Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper." *Larry Flynt
I salute civil rights for all human beings and I will continue to do all I can to make this happen. It takes one person and a friend to start a revolution. The revolution begins with one person and a friend; and gains momentum with us.
Why is it acceptable for politicians to dictate their versions of morality to the rest of us? Why is discrimination in respect to gender identification, sexual orientation, religion or lack of religion, class, race, disability, medical history, illness or health, and all those other characteristics that divide us still legal?
We are who we are. We are not asking your permission. We are demanding your recognition. We refuse to remain as extra-legals any longer.
~sapphoq
"If you vote for Al smith, you're voting against Christ and you will all be damned." *Sermon, first Baptist Church in Oklahoma City September 1928
"The Supreme Court of the United States of America is an institution damned by God Almighty." *Reverend Jimmy Swaggert, in Washington D.C., February 4, 1986
"Now the catholic bishops have upped the ante, indicating that voting for a candidate with Mr. Kerry's policies could lead to eternal damnation." *Maureen Dowd, op-ed columnist in the New York Times, 10/17/04
"Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper." *Larry Flynt
I salute civil rights for all human beings and I will continue to do all I can to make this happen. It takes one person and a friend to start a revolution. The revolution begins with one person and a friend; and gains momentum with us.
Why is it acceptable for politicians to dictate their versions of morality to the rest of us? Why is discrimination in respect to gender identification, sexual orientation, religion or lack of religion, class, race, disability, medical history, illness or health, and all those other characteristics that divide us still legal?
We are who we are. We are not asking your permission. We are demanding your recognition. We refuse to remain as extra-legals any longer.
~sapphoq
"WE DO NOT WANT..."
"...an American Society where everyone is treated as a terrorist, money launderer, drug trafficker, or criminal." -------->Defending Liberty in a Time of Crisis
Althought the Eagle Forum and the ACLU are frequently at odds with each other on many issues, they did join forces in 2002 in a non-monetary-award lawsuit concerning the federal government's no-fly watch list . It appears that members of the Eagle Forum have been lumped together with liberal or progressive activists in being delayed, searched, questioned, detained at airports in the fight against terrorism .
[Here are all of the links referenced in the above paragraph:
http://www.eagleforum.org/alert/alerts/2001/privacy.shtml
http://old.valleyadvocate.com/articles/grounded.html * if link does not work, then try http://old.valleyadvocate.com/valarchive.phtml and then hit the article from 11/28/02 about being grounded and the government's no-fly list.
http://www.opednews.com/cassell_they_have_a_list.htm
http://aclusonoma.org/profile.html
http://epic.org/privacy/airtravel/profiling.html ]
The Eagle Forum is a christian conservative newswatch group founded by [the now deceased] anti-era amendment activist Phyllis Schafly. Although Mrs. Schafly and I did not see eye-to-eye, I have read at least one of her books and found her to be a writer of merit despite our fundamental disagreements on fundamentals.
Here is what author [and George W. Bush critic] James Moore, author of Bush's Brain, said about the no-fly watch list as quoted at http://www.cruel.com/weblog/17978/securing-homeland-one-writer-time : "I have been on the No fly Watch List for a year. I will never be told the official reason. No one ever is. You cannot sue to get the information. Nothing I have done has moved me any closer to getting off the list. There were 35,000 Americans in that database last year. According to a European government that screens hundreds of thousands of American travelers every year, the list they have been given to work from has since grown to 80,000."
I have not found any info in my limited search on the internet to support those numbers. I have found that there is no way to get off the list once a person is on it--unless one is a politician. [It has been reported that some folks have added their middle initials to their names, successfully avoiding delays and searches at airports.]
~sapphoq
p.s. Complacency is the friend of terrorists and of anti-privacy governments.
ANNOY SOMEONE--- GOTO JAIL
In one of the latest attacks on the first amendment freedom of speech, a blogger or other user of the internet who sets up a site [or does other things] with the intent to annoy others can be legally tried and sentenced to up to two years in jail.
The internet user in question does not have to harrass [legally a stronger word] but can merely intentionally annoy to wind up in hot electronic soup. The operational words are INTENTIONALLY ANNOY.
An annoying blogger who may just write randomly annoying stuff cuz of a mere personality flaw is off the hook. A blogger who wishes to annoy a target annoyee such as yahoo or M$ or the president is not.
There goes another attack on american freedom of speech. Isn't that grand?
If you care about these things, you might consider joining the electronic frontier foundation. They can be found at http://www.eff.org . Oh, I forgot to ask myself-- am I intentionally annoying our government senators and congressmen by posting this info???
~annoyed sapphoq
The internet user in question does not have to harrass [legally a stronger word] but can merely intentionally annoy to wind up in hot electronic soup. The operational words are INTENTIONALLY ANNOY.
An annoying blogger who may just write randomly annoying stuff cuz of a mere personality flaw is off the hook. A blogger who wishes to annoy a target annoyee such as yahoo or M$ or the president is not.
There goes another attack on american freedom of speech. Isn't that grand?
If you care about these things, you might consider joining the electronic frontier foundation. They can be found at http://www.eff.org . Oh, I forgot to ask myself-- am I intentionally annoying our government senators and congressmen by posting this info???
~annoyed sapphoq
MEZHOPKING
visit this site---->* http://www.mezhopking.com/index.php?p=39 * thank-you hedgie group for the tip-off to this site.
The photographs on the mezhopking p39 are from Cerne Abbas in Dorset U.K. Be sure you scroll ALL THE WAY DOWN the page to check out the other pics. The navigation words on the left-hand side of the page will take one to many other excellent photographs of many other places.
* * * * *
Cerne and those of his ilk [The Horned One, The Stag, The Green Man, Pan...] have frequently been assumed by literalist christians to be the same as their devil [daemon, Satan, Lucifer, the Evil One, fallen angels...]. This is an erroneous assumption and one that has been encouraged throughout recent centuries because it benefits the cause of those of the new religion to make us all out to be "devil-worshippers."
Women and a few men found their death at the hands of the new religion in the burning times. They were for the most part falsely accused of being witches, participating in wild sex orgies in forests at night, and flying around on broomsticks. The word "witch" became intertwined with the words "devil worshipper."
Witches do not "worship" satan. The christian devil is of christian construct.
All of which begs the question of whether or not a society is really free. Do we really mean it when we say things like "to each their own" or "freedom of [and from] religion?" If our neighbors' spiritual practices are different from or foreign to our own, do we uphold their right as adults to do as they will, providing it harm none?
The photographs on the mezhopking p39 are from Cerne Abbas in Dorset U.K. Be sure you scroll ALL THE WAY DOWN the page to check out the other pics. The navigation words on the left-hand side of the page will take one to many other excellent photographs of many other places.
* * * * *
Cerne and those of his ilk [The Horned One, The Stag, The Green Man, Pan...] have frequently been assumed by literalist christians to be the same as their devil [daemon, Satan, Lucifer, the Evil One, fallen angels...]. This is an erroneous assumption and one that has been encouraged throughout recent centuries because it benefits the cause of those of the new religion to make us all out to be "devil-worshippers."
Women and a few men found their death at the hands of the new religion in the burning times. They were for the most part falsely accused of being witches, participating in wild sex orgies in forests at night, and flying around on broomsticks. The word "witch" became intertwined with the words "devil worshipper."
Witches do not "worship" satan. The christian devil is of christian construct.
All of which begs the question of whether or not a society is really free. Do we really mean it when we say things like "to each their own" or "freedom of [and from] religion?" If our neighbors' spiritual practices are different from or foreign to our own, do we uphold their right as adults to do as they will, providing it harm none?
CALLING PIZZA PALACE
click this link http://www.adcritic.com/interactive/view.php?id=5927
at last- something that both the aclu and conservative christians agree on.
thanks, friend ronskis for the tip.
HAPPY PIZZA NIGHT GANG!!!
at last- something that both the aclu and conservative christians agree on.
thanks, friend ronskis for the tip.
HAPPY PIZZA NIGHT GANG!!!
THE EYES HAVE IT
http://users.chartertn.net/tonytemplin/FBI_eyes/ <-----click there to see how surveillance of where we go when we surf the web will effect us
Sunday, April 02, 2006
HEY BABY, LETS ALL DO THE MUTATION
i'm gonna tell you bout the newest hunting craze! it's sweeping the nation! it's called the mutation! do it in the woods! do it in the hood! do it with dick chen-ey and his gun! do it with george-y bush in a d.c. bar!do it on air force one! do it just for fun! do it fast and do it far! the mutation mutiliation titillation celebration oh yeah let's all do the mutation right now.
~sapphoq
* picture is from http://www.evolvefish.com/ *
THE FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER AND THE CREATION OF THE MULTIVERSE
pict is from *http://www.venganza.org* found in yahoo search
THE FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER AND THE CREATION OF THE MULTIVERSE
Dear readers, there are indeed volcanoes in Alaska . They were placed there by our matriarchial deity [n.b. those who say that the FSM is a "he" got it wrong] the Flying Spaghetti Monster who rains down parmesan cheese upon the faithful.
Once upon a time in a time that was not entirely so long ago as it turned out, some townsfolk in Dover Pennsylvania wanted their publicschool children to be taught about Intelligent Design . Other townsfolk didn't. A judge ruled that Intelligent Design is NOT science. Some churchfolk had already ruled that evolution is a thought-theory. The Devil had placed signs and wonders upon the earth-- such as fossils-- in order to confound the sinners and confuse the faithful. Now that the Dover judicial system has come out of the closet on the side of Darwinism, it has been rumored that-- should Dover Pennsylvania ever experience a natural disaster, supernatural help in the form of "Intelligent Design Master please get us out of this one" will not be forthcoming. It appears that both human and divine help were rather lacking when Katrina initially descended upon the poorer sections of New Orleans. Therefore, it is doubtful that anyone in Dover Pennsylvania perceives this as much of a threat.
The mythos of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was created by humanists -- a very naughty word, dear readers-- in response to the denial by the creationist emcampment that Intelligent Design is a back-door way to sneak the book of Genesis into public schools.
As for me and my house , the idea of the Flying Spaghetti Monster sounds rather cheesy. Cheesy is a fun word that means "right up my alley." Actually the alley is on the left of my humble abode but no matter.
The problem with freedom of expression is that some folks may use freedom of expression to say things that other folks may not like to hear . The christians blog about things I may not like. I blog about things they may object to. Yahell wipes all the blogs written by creative sexy women under the terms of their TOS agreement. TOS is a word that means ThrowOutStuff- as-per-the-whims-of-the-censors. Certain government agencies regularly inspect the communications of anyone judged to be not in favor of theocracies . Meanwhile, everyone has forgotten the back button.
So if everything that everyone objected to was not allowed to be communicated in a public forum, there would not be much left. That is the risk we take when we proclaim that we are on the side of freedom of expression and we want bloggers' rights . Some of our comrades will take the opportunity to get on electronic soapboxes that just are not popular.
So if it ain't popular , does that mean we get to riddle it with holes ? Or can we respect the rights of adults to think, say, and do things in the company of other adults that we ourselves have no interest in? Aye, there's the rub. What would Voltaire do?
~sapphoq
THE RAGING GRANNIES
are out there doing it!
they are saying NO to illegal wiretapping,
they are having tea with military recruiters,
asking embarrassing questions about supplying body armor to our troops in iraq...
go check out their link please.
makes me want to live in san francisco or san mateo
so i could join up. or at least maybe take a field trip out there.
many thanks ischade for the link!
~sapphoq
they are saying NO to illegal wiretapping,
they are having tea with military recruiters,
asking embarrassing questions about supplying body armor to our troops in iraq...
go check out their link please.
makes me want to live in san francisco or san mateo
so i could join up. or at least maybe take a field trip out there.
many thanks ischade for the link!
~sapphoq
CHRISTIAN STATE
SECOND REGULAR SESSION
House Concurrent
93RD GENERAL
ASSEMBLY
Whereas, our forefathers of this great nation of the United States recognized a Christian God and used the principles afforded to us by Him as the founding principles of our nation; and
Whereas, as citizens of this great nation, we the majority also wish to exercise our constitutional right to acknowledge our Creator and give thanks for the many gifts provided by Him; and
Whereas, as elected officials we should protect the majority's right to express their religious beliefs while showing respect for those who object; and
Whereas, we wish to continue the wisdom imparted in the Constitution of the United States of America by the founding fathers; and
Whereas, we as elected officials recognize that a Greater Power exists above and beyond the institutions of mankind:
Now, therefore, be it resolved by the members of the House of Representatives of the Ninety-third General Assembly, Second Regular Session, the Senate concurring therein, that we stand with the majority of our constituents and exercise the common sense that voluntary prayer in public schools and religious displays on public property are not a coalition of church and state, but rather the justified recognition of the positive role that Christianity has played in this great nation of ours, the United States of America.
~a very sad and frightening commentary on the times that we live in and on our rapidly escalating theocratic union.
thanks ischade for sending this to me
~sapphoq enraged
DESERTED ISLANDS...
where the men are men and the sheep are scared!!!
A Zealander was washed up on a beach after a terrible shipwreck.
Only a sheep and a sheepdog were washed up with him.
After looking around, he realised that they were stranded on a deserted island.
After being there a while, he got into the habit of taking his two animal companions to the beach every evening to watch the sun set.
One particular evening, the sky was a fiery red with beautiful cirrus clouds, the breeze was warm and gentle - a perfect night for romance.
As they sat there, the sheep started looking better and better to the lonely Kiwi. Soon, he leaned over to the sheep and put his arm around it.
But the sheepdog, ever protective of the sheep, growled fiercely until the man took his arm from around the sheep.
After that, the three of them continued to enjoy the sunsets together, but there was no more cuddling.
A few weeks passed by and, lo and behold, there was another shipwreck.
The only survivor was a beautiful young woman, the most beautiful woman the man had ever seen. She was in a pretty bad way when he rescued her and he slowly nursed her back to health.
When the young maiden was well enough, he introduced her to their evening beach ritual.
It was another beautiful evening - red sky, cirrus clouds, a warm and gentle breeze - perfect for a night of romance. Pretty soon, the Kiwi started to get "those feelings" again.
He fought the urges as long as he could, but he finally gave in and leaned over to the young woman, cautiously, and whispered in her ear, "Would you mind taking the dog for a walk?"
A Zealander was washed up on a beach after a terrible shipwreck.
Only a sheep and a sheepdog were washed up with him.
After looking around, he realised that they were stranded on a deserted island.
After being there a while, he got into the habit of taking his two animal companions to the beach every evening to watch the sun set.
One particular evening, the sky was a fiery red with beautiful cirrus clouds, the breeze was warm and gentle - a perfect night for romance.
As they sat there, the sheep started looking better and better to the lonely Kiwi. Soon, he leaned over to the sheep and put his arm around it.
But the sheepdog, ever protective of the sheep, growled fiercely until the man took his arm from around the sheep.
After that, the three of them continued to enjoy the sunsets together, but there was no more cuddling.
A few weeks passed by and, lo and behold, there was another shipwreck.
The only survivor was a beautiful young woman, the most beautiful woman the man had ever seen. She was in a pretty bad way when he rescued her and he slowly nursed her back to health.
When the young maiden was well enough, he introduced her to their evening beach ritual.
It was another beautiful evening - red sky, cirrus clouds, a warm and gentle breeze - perfect for a night of romance. Pretty soon, the Kiwi started to get "those feelings" again.
He fought the urges as long as he could, but he finally gave in and leaned over to the young woman, cautiously, and whispered in her ear, "Would you mind taking the dog for a walk?"
ACTUAL NEWSPAPER ADS
~courtesy of night owl~
THESE ARE ACTUAL NEWSPAPER ADS!
1.) FREE YORKSHIRE TERRIER. 8 years old. Hateful little dog. Bites .
2.) FREE PUPPIES: 1/2 Cocker Spaniel, 1/2 sneaky neighbor's dog.
3.) FREE PUPPIES... Part German Shepherd, part stupid dog.
4.) FREE GERMAN SHEPHERD 85 lbs. Neutered. Speaks German.
5.) FOUND DIRTY WHITE DOG. Looks like a rat been out awhile. Better be
a reward.
6.) COWS, CALVES: NEVER BRED...Also 1 gay bull for sale.
7.) NORDIC TRACK: $300 hardly used, call Chubby.
8.) GEORGIA PEACHES, California grown - 89 cents lb.
9.) JOINING NUDIST COLONY! Must sell washer and dryer $300.
10.) WEDDING DRESS FOR SALE. WORN ONCE BY MISTAKE. Call Stephanie.
AND THE BEST ONE...
11.) FOR SALE BY OWNER: Complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica - 45
volumes. Excellent condition. $1,000 or best offer. No longer needed,
got married last month. Wife knows everything.
THESE ARE ACTUAL NEWSPAPER ADS!
1.) FREE YORKSHIRE TERRIER. 8 years old. Hateful little dog. Bites .
2.) FREE PUPPIES: 1/2 Cocker Spaniel, 1/2 sneaky neighbor's dog.
3.) FREE PUPPIES... Part German Shepherd, part stupid dog.
4.) FREE GERMAN SHEPHERD 85 lbs. Neutered. Speaks German.
5.) FOUND DIRTY WHITE DOG. Looks like a rat been out awhile. Better be
a reward.
6.) COWS, CALVES: NEVER BRED...Also 1 gay bull for sale.
7.) NORDIC TRACK: $300 hardly used, call Chubby.
8.) GEORGIA PEACHES, California grown - 89 cents lb.
9.) JOINING NUDIST COLONY! Must sell washer and dryer $300.
10.) WEDDING DRESS FOR SALE. WORN ONCE BY MISTAKE. Call Stephanie.
AND THE BEST ONE...
11.) FOR SALE BY OWNER: Complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica - 45
volumes. Excellent condition. $1,000 or best offer. No longer needed,
got married last month. Wife knows everything.
WELCOME 4/2/06
to radical.sapphoq.com.
Lets' get the party started with a joke:
Dear Tide,
I am writing to say what an excellent product you have! I've used it all of my married life, as my mom always told me it was the best. Now that I am in my fifties I find it even better! In fact, about a month ago, I spilled some red wine on my new white blouse. My inconsiderate and uncaring husband started to belittle me about how clumsy I was, and generally started becoming a pain in the neck.
One thing led to another and somehow I ended up with his blood on my new white blouse!
I grabbed my bottle of Tide with bleach alternative, and to my surprise and satisfaction, all of the stains came out! In fact, the stains came out so well the detectives who came by yesterday told me that the DNA tests on my blouse were negative and then my attorney called and said that I was no longer considered a suspect in the disappearance of my husband. What a relief! Going through menopause is bad enough without being a murder suspect! I thank you, once again, for having a great product.
Well, gotta go, have to write to the Hefty bag people.
Sincerely,
Hillary
DISCLAIMER:
If you are not of legal age or you are easily offended or you require handling with kid gloves-- now is the time to hit your back button.
Lets' get the party started with a joke:
Dear Tide,
I am writing to say what an excellent product you have! I've used it all of my married life, as my mom always told me it was the best. Now that I am in my fifties I find it even better! In fact, about a month ago, I spilled some red wine on my new white blouse. My inconsiderate and uncaring husband started to belittle me about how clumsy I was, and generally started becoming a pain in the neck.
One thing led to another and somehow I ended up with his blood on my new white blouse!
I grabbed my bottle of Tide with bleach alternative, and to my surprise and satisfaction, all of the stains came out! In fact, the stains came out so well the detectives who came by yesterday told me that the DNA tests on my blouse were negative and then my attorney called and said that I was no longer considered a suspect in the disappearance of my husband. What a relief! Going through menopause is bad enough without being a murder suspect! I thank you, once again, for having a great product.
Well, gotta go, have to write to the Hefty bag people.
Sincerely,
Hillary
DISCLAIMER:
If you are not of legal age or you are easily offended or you require handling with kid gloves-- now is the time to hit your back button.
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