The Chronicles of SwissCelt's Lodge

First of all, a big thank you to anahata56. She'll know why.

( And now, for something completely different... )

So with that backstory out of the way, let's shift gears once again. Though the anti-Halloween crusaders are few in number, being the shrill harpies of the Religious Right they more than make up for it in volume. I'm sure you've read by now that Pat Robertson picked up his tired worn crayon to scrawl that Halloween candy is prayed over by witches. I am cursed"blessed" with one or more of these crusaders on my Facebook page. When I posted a somewhat cheeky status update wishing everyone a happy Halloween, one of my high school classmates wrote, in seeming response, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do!" (I responded with another update, "Hey, you borrowed the holiday. If you don't like it now, don't blame us!") And on it goes, until some question why they would bother celebrating a holiday that has no real religious or civic meaning to the vast majority of Westerners anymore.

And that, I think, is the point... and why the crusaders are winning the War on Halloween despite their small number. So let's work to take the holiday back. Most everyone knows, almost intuitively, what Halloween means to them, even if it's nothing more than the joy of children receiving little treats for braving the often cruel world of adults to assert their future citizenship. Let's not scare the bejeezus out of our kids by allowing the crusaders to foist their religion of fear and terror upon them. Instead, let's show them that there's nothing wrong with growing up. It's just another point in the circle of life... like death, actually. Which, after all, is what Halloween is all about.

For months now, I've found that I've been censoring myself on Facebook. Now, it's pretty obvious by how infrequently I've updated this journal that I haven't been doing much "social networking" as it is anyway. Even so, I've been especially circumspect about what I've posted on Facebook.

No, not because I have my real name on it. I've had my real name posted here, without any qualms. It's not because my parents might see it. If they found my profile on Witchvox, they certainly could find this journal, after all; and besides, all the skeletons are out anyway. I'm too old to shock my folks, and they're too old to be shocked by anything I do or have done. It's certainly not because my co-workers and business associates are on Facebook. They're actually among the more diverse and non-traditional of my Facebook "friends"... besides many of you, that is.

( So why? )

Obviously, the sacrifice is much less painful this time around.

I've ranted on this subject before, of course. The fact is, I've long identified with the aims of those holding "Tea Parties" in protest of government as usual. That a business client of mine has become the chairman of the Portage County Tea Party earlier this summer has changed my views not in the least.

But it's been hard. No, not just because I'm working my ever-loving ass off trying to make the so-called economic recovery work for me and my family, but because the most vocal proponents of the Tea Party viewpoint have been making, well, asses of themselves. For one thing, the Libertarian idealism I thought had infused the whole Tea Party movement has given way to Republican opportunists, "Birthers", and the completely disingenuous (as though the former two groups weren't disingenuous enough!) "Death Panelists". Goodbye Glenn Beck, hello Sarah Palin.

Thing is, I still am opposed to the Administration... just as I have been for the past eight years. I still think the Department of Homeland Security is about the worst idea ever devised in Washington. Since writing my last rant on the topic, I've had the opportunity to witness first-hand Homeland Security's most visible agency, the Transportation Security Administration. It's as bad as I thought. To fly on a commercial aircraft in the United States, we now are subjected to a numbingly terrifying ordeal that is one part DUI checkpoint, two parts prisoner intake procedure. That is not something the current crop of Teabaggers are likely to change, considering they're the ones that came up with it in the first place.

And can I just say, for the record, that Cash for Clunkers was a colossal waste of money? Or that GM, as a government-owned entity, sucks? Or how about just the basic fact that we've moved from one extreme of people having to defend themselves against spurious charges of communism and socialism, to the other extreme where anyone critical of these ideals must explain how they're not Neo-Conservative Fascists? No, I'm not bitter over having "lost the election", thanks... I'm bitter over having been systematically disenfranchised from American politics over the last fourteen years.

That's what I thought-- nay, hoped-- the Tea Parties would change. Of course, it's also the change I naively hoped Obama would bring last November. But no, we're still dithering between two dangerous extremes. Fortunately, these two extremes have been holding each other in check thus far. Unfortunately, history has shown that won't last.

In the previous entry, pope_guilty asks:

Is this really appropriate for a dominionism mod?

For the record, my response:

( Read more... )

Presenting it all here in the spirit of openness.

Yes, I know this is a pretty cheap way to get a journal update in. But this is positively the most exciting moment to date in Cleveland TV news history, and I figured I'd share... if for no other reason than to keep it in my journal.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's been an interesting week. This week demonstrated to me, in dramatic fashion, that the Democrats are every bit as tone-deaf to the concerns of us Libertarians as the Republicans are. First we had hints coming from the Department of Homeland Security that the target of domestic espionage has shifted from enemies of the Dominionist state to enemies of the Socialist state. (And meanwhile, those of us who oppose both are left wondering just what has changed.) Then we had the tea parties, and the not-so-subtle comparisons from the various media of "tea-bagging" to oral fixations of male genitalia.

( Or, to be more blunt... )

I just unbanned three people today from this journal. Not because I've reconciled with them, but rather because I'm just too busy to care anymore. Undoubtedly, this will wind up biting me in the ass at some point.

( Read more... )

I have been waiting for a few months to write this post; since the "Reverend Doctor" Kendra Vaughn Hovey's revelation that she has converted to Christianity, and is apparently taking her "First Church of Wicca" with her. I anticipated writing a scathing rebuttal to Hovey's new writings about Christianity. And yes, I believed there might be more than a little snark involved.

( Haer be dragons... )

That's why I feel I must write about Hovey's new Christian endeavour. And that's why I'm doing so here, in my personal journal, behind a cut. You don't have to read it, of course, but by the same token I don't think I gain anything by not making this a public post.

( So here it is. )

My friends, this is not intended as a critique of Christianity, and I hope none read this as such. What the "Reverend Doctor" Kendra Vaughn Hovey preaches is not Christianity, but rather her latest attempt at megalomania. I'm actually saddened that Hovey has chosen to tarnish yet another religion with her destructive ways. Thanks for reading.

I used to enjoy reading slacktivist. It was absolutely wonderful reading someone who understands, intimately, the dangers Dominionism poses not only to this country, but to Christianity. Fred Clark, the journalist behind Slacktivist, has been a great compass for me: In a time when so many so-called "Christians"-- and even more than a few well-meaning ones-- were caught up in the politics of proselytization, Clark wandered the wilderness to tell us all that this was not right. Dominionism, he reminded us, is not Christianity.

Last November, after President Obama was elected, I suspected that Dominionism would be on the wane for a few years. I even hoped for that to happen, and thus far it seems to have come true. In that hope, though, was the fear that the tendency by some to mix Christian teachings with political power would take a new form. Maybe tendency isn't the right word here. Really, it's more of a temptation; a sin.

I've noticed a change on Slacktivist in the last few months. Gone are the admonitions on combining Christianity with politics. In its place, increasingly, are political screeds justifying policy with political teachings. It's almost like D James Kennedy came back from the dead to thump the other half of the Bible for a while.

( Wherein we are compared to workers in a vineyard, and your SwissCelt wonders when he'll be paid his denarius. )

In a sense, I've been waiting four years to make this post. No, not because I intend to gloat- being a conservative myself, there's not much about which I can gloat right now. But rather, the stunning hubris with which Dominionists treated the 2004 election would not go unanswered by Whatever Gods May Be. It was a good guess, then, that I would be writing something like this now, just a few short days before Barack Hussein Obama II officially becomes the 44th President of the United States.

First, though, some background. ( Read more... )

In the denouement of his piece, Pastore returns to preaching for freedom. "We still believe that liberty and justice is for all," he says, somehow forgetting (or perhaps being glaringly self-unaware) that he just called for the kind of winnowing process that would by nature deny liberty and justice to those who are not united on class, ethnic and religious lines. I'd like to give Pastore the benefit of doubt in presuming that he is simply too caught up in the compromised rhetoric of Dominionism that he fails to note the contradiction. Still, because he is a public figure-- he has hosted a talk show on KKLA in Los Angeles for several years-- it's his words that need to be countered along with those of such known Dominionists as Pat Robertson.

I've been wanting to write this post for a few weeks now, but just couldn't find the time. Right now, the weekend before the elections here in the US, is my last best chance to do so. I know I've been extremely lax in updating this journal this season, and probably the last thing most of you want to read right now is another political screed. But while I'm not so naive to think that all among my regular readers are even still lurking about this corner of cyberspace, much less eager to indulge me in a long-winded rant at this time, I do think the experience may be worth it for those of you who will kindly... ( look behind the cut )

Okay, John, time to take out your checkbook again. (That's Billman. B-I-L-L-M-A-N...) *grin* I'm going to have to use my voice to counter that of others who otherwise would presume to speak for me.

I've been reading gothelittle's journal lately. While frustrating, it has also been very enlightening seeing how the Religious Right views the rest of us. Ordinarily, I would respond in my normally bombastic way, openly scorning those whom I've come to call Dominionists and pouring on the rhetoric. But because many of my friends have been identifying with the Religious Right of late, I see an opportunity for some honest political dialogue... indeed a lost art in this country.

( Read more... )

I'll end there for today. Still, let's not also end the dialogue. Feel free to share your thoughts in comments.

Another one from my Greatest Hits collection. ;-) Hopefully this song scans better than the last... apologies to Jimmy Buffett.

( A little less dark this time... )

Community speaks for, against Mount Vernon teacher

Yes, they're still fighting the same old battles over there in Mount Vernon, Ohio. (And in an ironic coincidence, they're also re-enacting the Civil War. The South won, interestingly enough; "capturing the hearts of visitors". Gimme a friggin' break.)

One of the largest venues in tiny Knox County, Ohio was commissioned for the meeting of the Mount Vernon City School District. The primary topic of discussion, of course, was John Freshwater. "Fresh H2O", as he has become known, is a rallying point for Ohio Dominionists, who still believe the lie that he was fired for displaying the Ten Commandments and/or the Bible. (He displayed both in his science classroom, and was fired for insubordination in his repeated attempts to ignore the approved curriculum and use his position as a bully pulpit against MV schoolchildren.)

The turnout in support of "Fresh H2O" was sickening. I could not bear to watch most of even the first video, posted on YouTube. (I won't be linking it here. It's on the first Topix page linked above, if anyone is interested.) However, the demonstrators for John Freshwater did inspire me to write this song. In it, I personified (rightly or wrongly) the supporters as the "Mount Vernon PTA". Apologies to any actual parent-teacher partnership that may or may not be established in Mount Vernon, Ohio. ( Behind the cut... )

Recently, it was pointed out to me that John Freshwater, the Mount Vernon, Ohio science teacher who branded at least one of his students with a cross as part of his 12 year effort to turn his classroom into a proselytization center, was actually the only Mount Vernon science teacher whose students received satisfactory marks on Ohio's standardized test battery. This made me wonder: Should we be weeding out Dominionists early, thus giving us a true measure of the secular failures of public education? Perhaps that way, we can see just how bad the schools would be without Jesus in the classroom... or more likely, just how dumb Americans have become since the establishment of Dominionism as a major political force in this country. What follows, then, is a tongue-in-cheek standardized test that Dominionists are doomed to fail.

( Read more... )

"Imagine, if you will..." So began nearly every subsequent episode of "The Twilight Zone", with Rod Serling taking the role of narrator back from Desi Arnaz, seen above in the pilot introduction. The pilot was, of course, "The Time Element": A man by the name of Peter Jensen consults a psychiatrist believing that, upon falling asleep, he would travel through time back to 1941. "I wake up in a hotel room in Honolulu, and it's 1941, but I mean I really wake up and it's really 1941!"

I feel like Jensen frequently nowadays...

( Imagine, if you will... )

But that's how it is in the age of the eternal slumber; an age known as, "The Twilight Zone".

Well, not quite gratuitous. You see, Iran got caught with its hand in the image editing jar. Well, feeling the need to create a new user icon, simianlovedoc and fizzyland gave me an idea.

Feel free to swipe.

Are any of you on Facebook? Check that... I know some of you are. I've had an account there for awhile, but haven't done much with it yet. Today, though, I learn it would *ahem* probably be a good idea for me to be more active there. So... for those of you who want to connect to me, or add me as a friend, or whatever they call it, look for "Jeff Billman" on Facebook. (ETA Or just click here: http://profile.to/jeffbillman/)

---

In other news, there is someone on my friends list (not just "reading list", but a true friend) who urgently needs prayer right now. For those of you who make a habit of praying, please add "David" to your prayer list. Thank you.

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( Why am I doing this? )

There's a movement in the works to ask LiveJournal to restore Kumi Monster's journal. You can see it here, or at kumicorps. Please take a moment to sign the petition to show your support. We're not "blackmailing" SUP to do anything in this instance, just asking them to reverse an unfortunate mistake.