I'm not going to lie, I rarely follow other state's politics, and for those of you who are from South Carolina or do follow it's politics, you might be asking who is Alvin Greene? Don't feel bad, you're not the only one. Alvin Greene flipped the world of politics upside down when he beat all other candidates for the primary Democratic candidate for US Senate. Alvin Greene in the political sense, is a nobody. Greene is an unemployed Army veteran who lives with his father. During Greene's campaign, he spent no money on adds, signs, commercials and led no debates. He did not speak once to the public, which has left everyone confused as to how this man won 60% of the votes. Michael Sigman, writer for The Huffington Post, posed the idea that voters thought they were voting for a different Al Greene (there is a famous singer known as Al Greene). However others, such as John Stewart, have found that people voted for Greene because his name appeared alphabetically first. Despite accusations that Greene was a plant by the Republicans, inquiries about his mental health, and a pending felony for showing pornography to a college student, Greene claims he is the people's choice and has no intent in backing out. Could Alvin Greene be the next US Senator? I have heard some lead the debate that all politicians are idiots so how could it hurt to have Greene in office... honestly, how bad could it get? Well, I leave you with this; how bad did it get when we elected an idiot to be president?

References: Fox News, The Huffington Post, The Christian Science Monitor

image from apologista.wordpress.com

   Pat Robertson is a whose who in the Christian world. Because of his popularity in the Christian faith his opinion is often sought after in various media avenues. He is a reportedly educated man not only in verse but graduated with a major in history from Washington and Lee University. On top of his numerous predictions that never came true, he is known as the world's first televangelist (a title Robertson personally disapproves of). He is the founder and chairman of The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) Inc., and founder and co-chairman of International Family Entertainment Inc., Regent University, Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation, American Center for Law and Justice, The Flying Hospital, Inc. and several other organizations and broadcast entities.[1]

  Robertson has been brought to the forefront of the media due to a recent comment that the Haitians had made a pact with the devil during French sovereign. His remark, amongst others, insinuated that the Haitian people deserved the earthquake due to their ungodliness. He has gone on to make comments about the nation's potential to restructure itself, now that the earthquake has happened, into a more righteous nation. I have not posted video of this because I could not find a clip that did not have some other person's spin on the story, but footage can be found on YouTube.com.
   As outrageous as it may sound, Mr. Robertson has every right to express his opinion, an opinion based on his religious beliefs. It is no surprise that someone of his caliber would insinuate a person's or nation's demise due to not following the same beliefs as Robertson. This has been going on forever. I am not saying that you should accept what he's saying with an idle tongue, but surprise probably shouldn't be warranted. What I do wonder, is why this Pat Robertson is allowed to be publicly addressed on television time and again, why do people actually look up to this guy, and why isn't he rotting in a cell next to George W? From my research, a very short gander at Google and Wikipedia, he seems like a less than scrupulous individual.

   During Mr. Robertson's time in in the Marine Corp, he was spared from active combat by his powerful father and was reportedly the "liquor officer" responsible for supplying the officers' clubs with alcohol. Robertson was also known to drink himself and frequented prostitutes. At one point he reportedly feared he had come down with gonorrhea.
   Robertson also started a fund to assist survivors of the genocide in Rwanda. The money from his fundraiser did not send supplies to the people but were used instead to transport diamonds. This was the same time that the African president was harboring Al Qaeda operatives who were being funded through the illegal diamond trade.
  

Controversies surrounding Robertson include his earlier work as a faith healer, his claim that some Protestant denominations harbor the spirit of the Antichrist, and his claims of having the power to deflect hurricanes through prayer; he has also denounced Hinduism as "demonic" and Islam as "Satanic." Robertson has issued multiple condemnations of feminism, homosexuality, abortion and liberal professors. Robertson also had financial ties to former presidents Charles Taylor (Liberia) and Mobutu Sese Seko (Zaire), both internationally denounced for their systemic human rights violations. Robertson was criticized worldwide for his call for Hugo Chavez’s assassination and for his remarks concerning Ariel Sharon's health as an act of God.

   These are only a few things he was caught doing. Who knows what this guy has actually gotten away with? I rarely ever take a stand against people and try to remain as respectful as possible, but the fact is that Pat Robertson is a bigot and a criminal. He has no right to preach to anyone about morality and should not be promoted to continue his blasphemous vomit he calls public speech. There are plenty of rich people that get away with as many things as this idiot, but probably not any as hypocritical. There is a time and a place for all emotions and this is a time to get mad! There may be nothing that can be done to stop Pat Robertson, but if he is excommunicated from society his words will no longer be able to influence others to commit harm. I am not just calling out to Pagans, but to all Americans and especially Christians, why would you want to be represented by this poser? Thank You.

[1] Wikipedia: Pat Robertson

(image from ScientificAmerican.com)

   I awoke this morning to the 'Today Show' as they were showing video of a missile being shot at the moon. My first reaction was disbelief, having no prior knowledge of this event. So, of course, I immediately jumped out of bed and "Googled" for some answers.

   The $79 million mission to the moon was launched on June 18 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission was called LCROSS, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, and has several objectives. The satellite is meant to orbit the moon for a year to gather data about possible landing points for a future moon landing. Today (10/09/09) two rockets were launched from this satellite at the moon at a speed double that of a bullet. The first rocket was meant to blow 350 metric tonnes from the Cabeus crater in the Moon's south pole. The second rocket, sent shortly after, is a Centaur spacecraft designed to collect data from the initial explosion. The damage to the moon is considered very minuscule compared to the weekly collisions the moon encounters with space debris.

   What exactly is the purpose of this mission? Scientists have believed for sometime now that there is water on the Moon's surface and this was confirmed by India's Chandrayaan-1 satellite mission on September 24, 2009. The impact is expected to eject debris from the moon's surface to an altitude reaching 6.2miles high and NASA hopes to find traces of water hidden beneath the Moon's surface. All of this leads towards the blueprinting of a space station on the Moon.

   Where does this leave us? Well, first I would like to ask, who owns the Moon? As a fellow 'Earthian,' I would like to express not only the importance of the Moon's existence to ours, but the rights of every inhabitant on this planet. NASA, a privately owned corporation funded by the American Government has no right to decide for the rest of the world, or even those in America, that it is okay to desecrate our moon. True, the explosion really did no harm, but it's the principle of the matter. It's no different then Governments arguing over ownership of the North Pole. Aren't there larger problems at hand than who owns what? Shouldn't we stop to think about our effect on the most important thing to man's existence and not how we can turn it into more profit? Our planet and one moon are all we have. Perhaps this could create greater steps to space exploration and the discovery of another habitable planet, but this is our planet, and should not be martyred for some damn scientific experiment that will only lead to more capitalist propaganda. That is what I think. I am all for science, I quote it often in my writings, but just because scientists believe that we evolved from nothing doesn't mean we have to be nothing... man can still have morality, even if it is self-imposed.

   References:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nasas-mission-to-bomb-the-moon-2009-06
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8299118.stm
http://in.news.yahoo.com/242/20091009/1364/tsc-nasa-rocket-to-bomb-moon-to-find-wat.html
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2009/09-131AR.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-1#Water_discovered_on_moon

I admit it, I'm bitter. I've been working the same soul sucking dead end job for the past five years and before that it was the same job, different place.

Why? Because it's safe.

I work in an office with lots of other moms like me. I don't do it for the money or job satisfaction. I have a second job to buy groceries and without my husband's income I could barely put a dent in our bills. I work in an airless office where I am expected sit in one spot with nothing but my fingers moving for 60% of my waking life for the free health insurance. One day, when those kids have their own insurance (or my husband finally gets a job that includes health insurance) and I don't have to be responsible anymore I just might follow a dream that doesn't involve the carpal tunnel syndrome and the secretary spread. Because writers and dog trainers don't get health insurance as a rule and they don't tend to make enough money starting out to pay the $300+ or so a month to afford health insurance for a family of 4.

When Obama first started talking about health care reform, I started daydreaming. Yes, I could start training full time. I could spend my spare time writing in a regular meaningful way because I would finally be able to afford health care without depending on the corporate vampires. Maybe, but maybe not. A girl can dream.

I can't get away from health care now. It's on NPR, it's in the paper, it's in my email and I'm pretty sure if I had a TV I would be saying it's on there too. The things they are saying about this reform is alarming and it makes me feel awfully silly for ever having had a daydream.

Here's a look at some of the things I've heard, and this Pagan mom's thoughts on them:

Health care reform, or health insurance reform?
The health insurance companies seem to be right on board with this whole reform thing and that makes me suspicious. Why? Because I don't trust health insurance companies.

Think about it: they would charge me $300 a month to pay 70% of my health insurance costs after a $5000 deductable. What are the chances I'm going to pay more than $5000 in health care, even with two kids? After we've all paid for our physicals & the blood tests that go with them, we'd still need to go for about 10 more visits throughout the year - all including tests, to break $5000. It's a gamble. It's a racket. Health insurance is like a casino. They are betting you don't get sick enough collect back any of the money you gave them and you're betting you are. Meanwhile, if you put that $300 a month in the bank, you've got $3600 to spend on whatever health care you want with no middle man.

But I'm a mother, and everyone knows that responsible mothers insure their children, in case they get cancer or something. So you pay the racket. Insurance companies are like the mafia that runs the neighborhood- if you don't play by their rules you're a pariah.

Which brings me to my next concern.

Mandates.
Some folks are pushing to require everyone to be covered or... what? We get fined? Maybe individuals (maybe not) but certainly employers. Does that include my dog training boss, even though I'm an independent contractor? I don't know. But I highly suspect if he had such a mandate he'd suck it up, with a tear in his eye, and skulk back to corporate hell. Is it good for the economy to put more strain on employers? I don't think so. There are likely going to be exceptions for small companies with only a few employees and probably independent contractors won't count.

If not, I suspect we're going to see a lot of small businesses close down. Of course I live in Michigan which is the worst place in the country (as far as I know) to start your own business. Maybe elsewhere it wouldn't hurt so much.

And when we go back to the idea of insurance companies being a racket, what if you don't want to buy into it? What if you decide, "You know what, I'm a healthy person, in the prime of life, I eat well, I exercise, I am rarely ever sick. When I am sick, I go to a holistic practitioner who doesn't take insurance anyway and most insurance companies wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole if he did. So I think I'm going to take that $300 (or more) a month I spent on insurance and put it in a bank account and pay for my own health care in cash." (Of course I can't make that choice because I'd be a Bad Mother, but if I didn't have kids, I would have a long time ago.)

Now I know what everyone says because I've heard them say it, "But what if you get cancer?" Well, it's my right, isn't it, to decide whether or not I am going to even bother treating my cancer. There is something to be said about dying gracefully and I would rather make that choice than have an insurance company make that choice for me.

In my dream world, I would decide what tests I got and go get them without waiting for my doctor's permission and my HMO's approval. Then I'd get online and read the results myself, consulting with the doctor of MY choice. If I had pain, I would go to the practitioner of MY choice, as it is, I already have to pay for holistic practitioners and a chiropractor out of pocket and he's the one who noticed my legs were slightly different lengths finally solving the mystery that years of intermittent physical therapy (when the doctor gave into my pleading and the HMO approved it) and muscle relaxers could do nothing for.

I don't like mandates because I don't like insurance companies. I don't think we should have to be insured. Yes, there are some people who can't handle their own health care without the guidance of a primary care physician. There are some who have chronic diseases that need supervision, there are those who just have no clue about health and disease and there are those who simply do better following schedules and getting advice. Then there are people who like to handle it themselves and I think they should be allowed to. We don't all need to be sheep.

At the very least I'd like to be able to fire my doctor without asking my HMO for permission and waiting a month for it to be effective.

Concern about "heath care shortages"

So I heard through the grapevine that there is a commercial on TV about how when everyone has access to health care there won't be enough doctors to go around and we're all going to have to wait and wait and wait.

First, I think it's rather appalling to say in effect "Dude, if all the poor people can go to the doctor than all the rich folks will be inconvenienced!"

Because I'll tell you something, us middle class folks, we wait and wait and wait. When I had to go to physical therapy, I had to wait six weeks for an appointment SIX WEEKS. Can you imagine going six weeks with constant pain? If I had to reschedule any of my appointments, I had to do it six weeks out. (I was lucky, two of my coworkers on the same HMO got their physical therapy denied recently, one has fibromyalgia and the other is recovering from a broken ankle.)

The last time I made an appointment for a physical it took nearly as long to get in to see my primary care physician. When I got there, even though I had an appointment, I waited 3 hours in the office before I was seen. Have you ever been to the emergency room? If you think there's any chance at all you're not going to die and you've got anything else going on in the next 48 hours, you're better off staying home. Let the doc re-break that arm and set it in six weeks when you can get an appointment.

We already have a health care shortage. It's been in the news for years. Rich peoples' doctors aren't going to add to their case loads. Doctors have a maximum of how many new patients they will take and then they stop taking them. The rich folks are safe. The middle class folks are screwed anyway so who cares and the poor folks, well they get to buy into the racket now.

The insurance companies are all a-twitter and they should be. Not only is their scam legal, it's proscribed. It's really alarming.

Love it or hate it?

So am I against health care reform. No. I'm not. Health care is screwed up, we need to do what we can to make it better. Personally, I'd prefer an all or nothing approach. Give us state funded health care or strip the insurance companies of their power and legality.

Without insurance companies we'd use our cash to pay for health care and we can set up subsidies for poor folks. Without the insurance companies, doctors and hospitals would have to compete on price which would make things more affordable. Or they could all be government employees and leave us out of it altogether. Personally, I'm for the hands off approach, but I've not met a single person who doesn't want to shout me down on that. Still, I should have the option not to sell my soul to an insurance company.

I'll take what I can get but it should be something that allows people more health care independence, not less. I think of all the people like me who hesitate to start their own businesses because of the health care issue. Those people could provide jobs for other people, if only it didn't mean living under the threat of not being able to receive health care when you need it. This is why health care needs to be fixed, so that our workforce has the freedom to grow our economy.
Yea, I'm selfish. I'm a capitalist.

picture provided by SoulBounce.com

After watching VH1's top 100 Hip-Hop songs I was inspired to look up more information on Baby Bam (Afrika Bambaataa) due to a comment made about him being Pagan (by Bam himself). My first thought was excitement at the thought of a Legendary Hero like Bam being a Pagan. Unfortunately, through many searches via Google I haven't found too terribly much info about it. I've found plenty of biographies and discographies about Bam that list a very impressive record of achievements and awards. I also found a few pictures of him with make-up on that is "due to him being Pagan." He has his Pagan Society (http://www.myspace.com/pagansociety1) with 2nenBladez, which is apparently a music group. Here is what their MySpace says:

About Pagan Society
PaganSociety Biography PaganSociety is the brainchild of 2nenBladez and B.A.M. Their vision from it's inception was to produce a sci-fi film musical group. Ironically the two first met on the evening of October 31 while trick or treating at a fetish costume party in Miami Florida. B.A.M. was composing music to score the film titled 1922:ZooPraXiScopE. 2nenBladez (film editor) inspired by the soundtrack decided to shoot behind the scenes footage of the production of the film with finances he raised from his practice that uses optical illusions to treat his patients with acute mental disorders and selling portraits of himself in different characters created from his illustrious imagination. After 2nenBladez convinced B.A.M. to release the music for the film to promote the forthcoming project, they came up with the idea of performing the material live dressed up as two of the stories main characters to include in the behind the scenes making of documentary of the motion picture. Relying on skills developed in their former careers - B.A.M. (theater actor, writer, character model) toured Europe during spring-summer festivals casted as the Wicked Witch of the East in his adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz" and 2nenBladez (character model, sound provider, stage show producer for film trade show events, costume designer) - the two are peerless in their genre. Composing classical music with various genres rooted in electronica they conjure a fantastical performance with a controlled dichotomy that is scary yet seductive. Dark, sensual, moody, dramatic and spontaneous is how best to describe the sound of this film project now adapted for live performances. Viewers and listeners are enchanted and held in suspense by the mental stimulation put into PaganSociety's cinematic-like theatrical displays of the compositions. Though the project did not expect attention from the mainstream conciousness the first song recorded "ThePaganSystem" - 2nenBladez debut as a vocalist - coincidentally and oddly enough, wound up becoming the top 5 most requested song on Power 96's affiliate radio station and is now up for consideration by the program director for regular rotation. Indicative of how bizarre and freakish mainstream pop culture has become. Currently their brainchild PaganSociety has attracted media's attention causing emotional confusion, gossip and rumors to spread. After a photograph of B.A.M. in character was snatched off his myspace page he was accused of being "the gay rapper" even though he's not a rapper in PaganSociety. Further research into the allegations made by the public led to the discovery by the media of his connections to the group PaganSociety which led to more accusations of him being apart of a cult. If the saying holds true that 'everybody has a twin' this was one occassion that the possibility was ruled out in the public's eyes during the assessment of the situation. B.A.M. neither confirming or denying the accusations, holding out for the highest bidder, has contributed to the mystery of the project gaining them the cult status/following they desired to have for the characters and the film to be released in conjunction with launch of the website. For additional information: pagansocietybiz@gmail.com

I also read an interesting article about PaganSociety from SoulBounce.com (article found here) which quotes Merriam-Webster's online dictionary of what a Pagan is, which I also found interesting.

* Main Entry: pa·gan
* Pronunciation: \ˈpā-gən\
* Function: noun
* Etymology: Middle English, from Late Latin paganus, from Latin, civilian, country dweller, from pagus country district; akin to Latin pangere to fix — more at pact
* Date: 14th century

1 : heathen 1; especially : a follower of a polytheistic religion (as in ancient Rome)
2 : one who has little or no religion and who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods : an irreligious or hedonistic person
3 : neo-pagan

— pagan adjective

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pagan

And a neo-Pagan is a noun that means "a person who practices a contemporary form of paganism (as Wicca)."

Now I'm not really sure how to feel here. On one hand you have a Hip-Hop Idol claiming to be Pagan and on the other I feel more violated than if Kathy Lee Gifford had just 'come on' to me. It appears that there is still a lot of uneducated individuals out there that are in desperate need of information. And the only people who can do it are the Pagans themselves. So a little food for thought, who knows you're a Pagan and do they even understand or know what a Pagan is? If you want to be held as an equal, you'll have to stand up for your own definition, or be defined by others.