Red River Gorge And Natual Bridge

I've been wanting to do a post about the Red River Gorge for some time. It's one of the most worthwhile environmentalist success stories of all time (arguably one of the very few). Slated to be razed to make way for a reservoir in the seventies, due to environmentalist protests it was made into a state park, which includes several prominent natural features, most notably Natural Bridge.

Previously, it was as wild as the wild west, with gambling, bootlegging, drugs, prostitution, and even a hippy commune at one point.

I'm glad I found this video. The accompanying music by itself would be worth the price of admission. I'll probably bore everyone to tears posting about this place and over places in Kentucky. Fair warning.

I'm Taking My #*&^@ Marbles Home

A new museum opening in Athens is designed expressly for the purpose of hastening the return to Greece of the Elgin Marbles, taken from Greece over two hundred years ago by Lord Elgin, who was then the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

The Brits don't want to give them up, and I can't say as I blame them. I'm not really sure which side I take on this. The Brits have taken care of the marbles, after all, while many of the pieces that remained in Greece have, as pointed out in the article linked, fallen victim to war and to natural disasters. Some are gone forever.

Still, they are, after all, a very important part of Greece's cultural and historical heritage.

It might be a lot easier to side with the Greeks if the leaders of their dominant religion-the Greek Orthodox Church-were not so easily inclined to make such statements as "monstrous errors of the past" in referencing the ancient pagan faiths and cults of their forefathers.

For the time being, I'll just side with the deities. Maybe they like it where they are just fine.

I'll Have One Great Shatan On A Stick

I'm not about to get all mushy and romanticize recent events in Iran, because frankly, I don't know what to think. Was it in reality a sham election? I have my doubts. Remember that all candidates, including Mousavi (himself a former student radical during the early days of the Islamic Revolution) had to be approved by the Ayatollahs, and you have to wonder, why should it matter?

Some point out the vote was counted too fast. Uhhm, I don't know, but I have a feeling there were plenty of vote-counters, and they were engaged throughout the entire day tabulating ballots. They didn't just start counting when the polls closed.

So I don't know. Maybe it means something. Maybe it means nothing. This is actually not the first time there have been street demonstrations against the mullahs. It's just the first time we have been made that blatantly aware of it.

In the meantime, what better way to experience the Persian culture than with their food? I wish them all the best, but in the meantime, I'm not about to rush over and paint my blog green. Baby steps, people, baby steps.

Magical Food For A Magical Night

From the website All Recipes comes this recipe for Granny's Gingersnap Cookies.

Yes, I know this might be a better recipe for Yule, but bear in mind, tonight the sun is in opposition to Pluto, which is itself just a couple of degrees from the cusp of Capricorn, where it was in conjunction with the sun during Yule.

Besides, I just discovered just how good these things are. Admittedly, I use the store bought kind, which are fine, but if you really want to put some of your own magical energy into the creation of these beauties, you can't go wrong with this recipe.

I went through a whole bag one night, and found myself while sleeping dreaming that my bowels were moving. I then woke up to find they were in fact about to move. I made it to the bathroom just in the knick of time. Ginger is a purifying agent, and good for magical energy. Used magically, they are good for raising power and magical energy, for grounding following a ritual, and of course for purification purposes, quite appropriate for a situation in which the Sun is in opposition to Pluto, in fact.

Most of all, they are just damn good cookies, and even if purchased from a store in a little old-fashioned style brown paper bag, they are as close to a natural product as anything you can buy that way.

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup shortening
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup dark molasses
• 1/3 cup cinnamon sugar
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Sift the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir the mixture to blend evenly, and sift a second time into another bowl.
• Place the shortening into a mixing bowl and beat until creamy. Gradually beat in the white sugar. Beat in the egg, and dark molasses. Sift 1/3 of the flour mixture into the shortening mixture; stir to thoroughly blend. Sift in the remaining flour mixture, and mix together until a soft dough forms. Pinch off small amounts of dough and roll into 1 inch diameter balls between your hands. Roll each ball in cinnamon sugar, and place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.
• Bake in preheated oven until the tops are rounded and slightly cracked, about 10 minutes. Cool cookies on a wire rack. Store in an air tight container.

Ways Your Basic Power Animal Of The Year Might Try To Attune With YOU

Now You, Too, Might See Russia From Your Front Porch

Well, in a manner of speaking, since the magnificent sunset you might soon see, depending on where you live, might well be due to the recent Volcanic eruptions from the Kiril Islands.

Just in time for the Solstice, hopefully, or at least close enough.

Magic In The Air

WTF?

This is an Alaska crime story, but the true culprits are the Supreme Court, and in what is a departure from the norm for me, I find myself siding with the courts liberal wing. In what part of the Constitution is it written (or not written, as the case seems to be) that a criminal doesn't have a right to any kind of reasonable defense, which would under my standards include DNA evidence, in this case which could exonerate him of the crime of rape for which he was perhaps unfairly convicted.

If the prosecution in a case seems to feel it has sufficient evidence to bring a case, then they should be obliged to provide for such evidence at state expense. If they do, then guess what? They might decide its not such a good case, in a good many cases.

Of course, as I am sure we are all aware, no prosecutor would dream of prosecuting an innocent man and witholding exculpatory evidence in the process.

Who-And What-Is James Wenneker Von Brunn

He walked straight into the Washington DC Holocaust Museum and proceeded to shoot to death a black security guard, whereupon he was himself fired upon by another guard and critically injured.

The left claims he is a conservative, a Republican, a George W. Bush supporter, etc. The Right claims, with not just a little dab of evidence, that he was

far from being a conservative. In fact, he was a socialist who believed that Karl Marx perverted the original socialist philosophy every bit as much as he believed the Apostle Paul perverted Roman's original pagan culture with Christianity, which he sees as just another Jewish plot.

Most disturbingly to me, some claim he is a Neo-Pagan, and perhaps he is in a sense. He would seem to fit right into the dogma adhered to by the Wotanists, a group of adherents of the Norse deities, who are distinct from the more moderate Asatru.

The question is, what did he have to gain, this eighty-eight year old man, by walking into the Museum and taking the life of one relatively insignificant individual. He pretty much threw away the rest of his life.

My guess he is knows he is nearing the end and wanted to make some kind of major contribution to his cause. He might even hold out hopes of being some kind of godfather figure within the growing white racialist prison population, many of whom are Wotanist, while calling themselves (falsely) Asatru.

He is basically just a sad, decrepit, possibly depressed old man who should be confined to a sanitarium for the rest of his natural life. There is no need in giving the racialists a martyr on a silver platter by executing him, since he is not going to live much longer anyway. However, it is also not advisable to put Von Brunn in a situation where he might actually profit from his despicable crime by becoming a leader and hero, and possibly teacher and example, amongst a radical prison population.

Things To Look Out For

Probably the most anticipated movie of this summer (at least the most anticipated that's really worth seeing) features Sasha Baron Cohen as Bruno, a gay Austrian fashion designer. Not everyone is in love with the idea. A good many Austrians, for example, seem to take offense at Bruno. Of course, the Austrians are hardly noted for their sense of humor.

In the following clip, Bruno interviews some skinheads. including a hard-core white power metal group who take exception to Bruno's question, an apparent suggestion, as to whether they might ever masturbate on stage.

Will The Wicker Man Light Up Broadway?

Evidently there was a great deal of dissatisfaction with the revamped movie version starring Nicholas Cage from a few years ago, so some hardy souls have embarked on the solemn mission of bringing The Wicker Man to the stage-as, as you might have guessed, a musical. The original movie from the nineteen seventies has a prominent place in the hearts of many, if not most, modern pagans, who viewed the modern re-telling of the tale of the British policeman investigating the disappearance of a young girl, and finding himself on an isolated island populated by a community of modern pagans, as something of a borderline abomination at best.

A good way to judge the initial success of the project that is this newest stage version might well be a look at the reaction to the play's closing scene. If modern pagans stand as a group and cheer when the beleaguered policeman is burnt as a living sacrifice for the islands annual fertility festival, you will then understand two things, which are, in order-

1.The play can be considered an unqualified success at least as a cult favorite.

2.They don't make broom closets too small for me to hide in.

Seeing as how you have to invest in the play in order to read the current reviews of the current London production, something tells me this isn't going to go over too well in the long term.

In the meantime, I have to ask-why a musical? Why not an opera? Then again, if either, why The Wicker Man? Why, oh why, not do something original?

Thanks again to The Wild Hunt

Heather Graham Ventures Out Of The Broom Closet

Heather Graham claims to be a witch, or goddess worshiper, or something. In what would seem to mark her as something of a newbie (i.e., extremely naive) to the craft, she has even taken credit for spells she conducted with some friends she seems to think at least in part helped to elect Barak Obama. Something tells me Heather will wish she'd stayed in the broom closet by the time another couple of years have passed. I know I spend at least half my time there now, but at one time, I too was blessed with that quirky sense of wonder and awe in my new found path that is the hallmark of nerdy modern Neo-Pagans everywhere. It really is something like a rebirth of sorts.

Then you grow up.

I'll be waiting for you in that closet, Heather.

Hat Tip: Jason at The Wild Hunt.

The Blowjob

Fun With Yahoo Answers

A "friend" decided to turn to Yahoo Answers for some advice, and hopefully at least one solution to a pressing problem "he" has been having, which follows-

If you can't find silver bullets can you kill a werewolf with a plane one if you shoot before he changes?

I have a old neighbor who lives right next to the woods and I hear a lot of weird noise at night from there like howls and what not. I know it sounds dumb but this is a scary guy he looks evil when he smiles and just stares walking by and I know I have heard things outside my window at night. Well, I am a good shot with a gun but how do I get to him before he changes? I know I can get in trouble but I don't want to wait until he kills somebody like for example me. I never use to believe in this stuff but one look at this guy will make a believer out of you.

There are only five answers so far, and as of now this is my personal favorite, from somebody with the user ID "Samurai Spirit".

You can torch the person until he is ash and dispose of the ashes within very long distances of each other or just dispose of the ashes with a type of acid, a strong acid that will dissolve the ashes completely you have to do this all before a full moon is due.

I guess that would solve the problem. Thank you Yahoo Answers.

There are only three days left. Come on over and join the madness.

Stalking David Letterman-By The Stench

I would rather take a beating than sit through a whole night of David Letterman, or any late night comedian, and I suspect most regular people feel the same. This of course leaves out college students, some homemakers whose households fall within a certain income bracket, and a relatively few upper income types who work nine-to-five, along with some segments of the chronically unemployed who all sit collectively and anxiously trying to find some humor, and an outlet for their angst, as Letterman delivers his top ten list. Like all late-night comedians, Letterman has his bad periods, times when he could use a ratings boost, and the recent trip of Sarah Palin to New York provided him just that opportunity.

It also provided Sarah Palin with an unexpected windfall-a cause, and an opportunity to deflect from the recent humiliating snub she was unfairly forced to endure from the controlling, moderate wing of the Republican Party when she attended a recent meeting. She has played this for all its worth. Which, I don't blame her in the least, but at the same time, I can't say I feel sorry for her, or for her husband, over Letterman's recent antics, such as his aforementioned top-ten list, which featured, among other things, the suggestion that Sarah Palin dressed like a slutty flight attendant. As crass and obscene as such a remark can rightly be considered, Palin is an adult, and she and her husband have been politically active long enough to know that this kind of thing just goes with the territory.

Her daughters, however, especially fourteen-year-old Willow, are a different story. On the first night in question, Letterman remarked that while Palin was watching the ball game at which she and her daughter were in attendance, her daughter (presumably Willow, who was the only daughter of Palin's who was in attendance with her at the game) was being knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.

On the next night, he stated that the hardest thing about Palin's trip was keeping her daughter away from disgraced former Governor Elliot Spencer, recently a known frequenter of prostitutes.

Palin has responded on a number of venues, like an angry female mother bear protecting her cubs-and rightly so. In the meantime, many have suggested that Letterman be fired, or forced to apologize, or fined by the FCC. One man, a jewelry salesman in Austin Texas, has taken it to the extent of personally writing a letter of protest to the FCC. Some in liberal Austin have threatened to boycott his business.

Still others are of the mind that Letterman should not only apologize to the Palins, but to his audience, which is really missing the whole point of this controversy. It is not Letterman who should apologize to this audience, it is his audience who should apologize on his behalf to not only the Palins, but to all the rest of us in America. After all, Letterman was merely doing what all comedians and entertainers do-playing up to the preconceived notions and prejudices of his audience, who for the most part despise Palin, and conservatives in general, and who delight in the type of misogynistic banality spewed by their icons towards those like Palin who dare to oppose their cherished beliefs, towards feminism, abortion, religion, gay rights, gun control, immigration reform, or any other issue you care to mention.

It is Letterman's audience which is precisely the reason people like Jonah Goldberg can claim, with a great deal of merit, that liberal, leftist politics is fascist at its core, as there is no room for debate, or for tolerance towards opposing viewpoints. Conservatives like Palin, and their families, are sluts, whores, neanderthals to be pitied at best, and hopefully driven from the public limelight with however much venom it takes to run them off.

For Letterman to apologize to this, his audience, would be like Hitler apologizing to the Wehrmacht-or to the Waffen SS. You see, it makes no sense unless you see it for what it is-a chance to deflect the blame away from where it really belongs, away from the people who empower and promote Letterman to begin with.

Jenn Q. Public, a recent addition to the blogroll here, makes this case very well by providing a link to the Huffington Post, where in response to a poster who criticized Letterman and defended the Palins, a large number of commenters defended Letterman and, as you might have guessed, criticized Palin. Some had the gall to suggest that she asked for it, in a manner of speaking, by dressing like a slut, for being such a staunch social conservative, and for having a child who actually had the misfortune to make the same mistake so many other unwed teenage girls do-have unprotected sex and get pregnant as a result. It is the kind of thing that shows liberal hypocrisy for all the world to see, loudly and oh too clearly. It also aptly demonstrates their true, unabashed views towards working class as well as those of the "lower class"-a term I am starting to believe they themselves coined-and for a reason.

Of course, you will never hear any apologies from the likes of this trash, and others, such as this Alaskan based blogger who somehow in his delusions of grandeur actually thinks Palin reads his blog. Its foolish on my part to even suggest the possibility of contrition from this type of scum, as even when people like Letterman offer their own brand of tepid, non-apologetic excuses, they always manage to temper it somehow. They sound more like kids who got caught with their hands in the cookie jar than an actual sincerely contrite individual who regrets the possibility of having offended or hurt an innocent party.

Well, she asked for it, after all. They all asked for it. Palin's youngest daughter, who is only about eight or nine years old, was lucky she did not accompany her mother to New York. She would probably be the butt of a joke revolving around chasing down strange men in cars offering favors in exchange for candy.

No, a good many people are due apologies. Fourteen year-old Willow Palin, and yes, the Palin family in general, for the intolerable "joke" aimed at their daughter.

Also, by the way, he owes an apology to Alex Rodriguez. Where is he in all this anyway? He should step up to the plate, so to speak. He could hit one out of the park here for sure. No need for steroids in this case. Letterman made a joke about him committing statutory rape on a fourteen year-old girl. If I were Letterman, I would not want to be within arms reach of this guy, particularly if he had his bat with him.

Letterman arguably owes an apology even to Elliot Spitzer. Now that's fucking sad.

Can anybody imagine how this gap-toothed piece of excrement would howl in outraged anger if someone made a personally insulting and inappropriate joke out of his past problems with a stalker, or called his new wife a money grubbing bitch?

Let's just go with that image.

The Devil's Excrement

According to a Venezuelan writer, oil is the devil's excrement. The Devil's Excrement is also the name of a blog, by a Venezuelan blogger who covers Venezuelan and other issues. Worth a look. He's no fan of Hugo.

North Korea-Not A Threat, Just A Promise

Al Gore should be like Ike. He should go to Korea. After all, as the founder and presumably the CEO of Current TV, he was the one responsible for the two female reporters sent to the area, and for their efforts, they have now been sentenced to twelve years of hard labor at a work camp.

What they and their bosses at Current TV didn't realize was that not quite everyone sees the human trafficking that allegedly takes place at the North-South Korean border as a problem. The poverty-stricken North Koreans see it as a solution to a more pressing problem-starvation. The human traffickers from the South see the problems of the North as an opportunity, and they obviously have a large customer base.

Gore has offered his services, to go to Korea and negotiate for the reporter's release, and his own devotees-as fanatical as any that Kim Il Sung ever had in his wildest dreams-now doubtless see this as an opportunity for their star to shine through the beloved personage who is the icon-in-chief of his own personality cult. One is led to wonder how planet earth could withstand the force of these two in the same region at the same time, let alone the same room. The foundations of the earth might well be rent asunder.

In the real world, beyond the fevered imaginations of Gore's worshipful followers, the world would be treated to the mirthful to some, shameful to others, spectacle of Gore all but prostrating himself before Kim in abject apology for the imposition and insult to his country in sending the two female reporters across the North Korean border, an act which might well have been an accidental one, or for that matter coerced.

It would be ironic if Gore's actions, and subsequent visit to the North, providing it ever comes about, results in a humiliating debacle in which the North is given much needed aid, keeps and expands their nuclear program, and in the meantime gains concessions from the South, and gets an apology to boot, in return for doing no more than releasing these two reporters while giving a stern admonition for it not to ever happen again. To further rub salt in the wound, they could even portray it as a good will gesture in the wake of Kim's soon coming departure from the world stage and replacement by his hand-picked successor, his youngest son.

All of that would actually be more than worth it, but only on one condition. I would insist that, in return for all of this, North Korea makes one other, and only one other, major concession. They should not only let the reporters go, they should keep Gore. I don't care what they do to him after they get him, but they should definitely keep him. Perhaps they should make him do propaganda films to help advance the communist cause. That would be a form of high comedy to many of us.

It might actually be to Gore's liking. When you think about it, if North Korea is really as backward as most people think it is, it probably has the exact sort of pristine environment Al Gore and his most devoted followers would appreciate. Seeing as how they seem determined to impose it on the rest of us, perhaps they should join their lord and master in what they would surely consider heaven on earth.

Help! My Girlfriend Is A Preganent Virgin

That's just one of the examples of the Worst And Saddest Questions sent to Yahoo Answers. From girls with ping pongs stuck up their pussies to steam coming out of one to one wondering whether one might close up if it is not used enough, to one wondering how to get the popular guy at school to get her pregnant, it just gets dumber and dumber.

If I had known my question would have gotten somehow included with this bunch of dumb ass questions, I would never have asked them if a Jedi Light Saber was capable of harming Superman.

Be that as it may, to the woman with the nineteen year old son-if you did catch him in the middle of a love-making session with his best male friend, then I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that, yes, he is probably gay.

Hat Tip: Popehat

A Bucket Of Blood Is No Place For Guns

Now I'm about as avid a gun-owner's advocate as anyone, and I am and always have been a steadfast supporter of the Second Amendment, but I find this latest bill out of Tennessee very troubling. It grants gun-owners the right to carry guns inside restaurants and-yep, BARS!

Fine, I agree that most bar patrons that would opt to carry a gun in a bar are probably responsible enough to not abuse the right, but what about the few who are not. What about the others who would never dream of taking a gun to a bar without this law, who suddenly find themselves very pissed off-and drunk.

And yeah, I know this sort of person would probably abuse his rights as a gun-owner with or without this legislation, but why add to the probability of disaster? Why make it easy on him. At least if he has to go home to get his gun, he is constrained by the time limits which might afford a cooling off period, and in most cases calm down enough to realize he doesn't want to go there. With this law, its right there in arms reach. There's no chance to think things over rationally, to cool off. It only takes a split second to do something stupid. Acting rational involves a more deliberative process, especially when alcohol is involved.

The worse thing about this bill, is that if it does lead to a disaster, and to a number of deaths and injuries, do you really think the gun-control advocates will stop at reforming this law alone? Of course not. They will take this as an opportunity to further reform the law to where all gun ownership in general will become ever more restrictive. And if they get the opportunity, and the public attitude and outcry against a sudden spurt of gun violence is intense enough, they will strike while the iron is hot, and quickly, out of a perceived feeling of public support.

It was a Democrat who sponsored this bill, which makes me wonder. They know of course, or should, that there are certain bars, a minority of them, which the average person should not patronize, with or without a gun. There is more than a fair chance that, while most people that go to these dives now don't carry guns, or even knives, the percentage of them that do will certainly rise. The problem is, there is no codicil in this law, at least none that I am aware, that does or legally can single out certain establishments for exclusion to this new law, which passed over the veto of the governor of Tennessee. As a result, the various town councils had better be on their toes and look toward the very real necessity that some of these places should be closed down and their liquor license suspended. Otherwise, I see nothing but trouble. While most bars will remain relatively trouble free, it is these few-call them what you will, gun and knife clubs, buckets of blood, etc.-where the violence might and probably will rise exponentially as a result of this new law.

Oh well, at least bar owners can opt to ban guns from their places of businesses if they see fit, which they certainly-and in the case of bars, damn sure understandably-have the right to do.

Freak Accidental Discoveries And Deaths

How in the hell did anybody ever discover that you could achieve orgasm through suffocation? I have an idea this came about years before anybody ever understood the biological function of the brain, and how it is dependent on a steady oxygen supply. For that matter, probably way before anybody had a clue what oxygen really was. I have an idea some of the old sex and fertility cults, such as Aphrodite's, would have made considerable use of this discovery. It might have even been used as a kind of baptismal rite, what with the obvious tie-ins of death, sex, and euphoria, probably in many cases accompanied by hallucinatory visions. Ages ago, the idle rich would have paid enormous sums for such a ritual initiation, for this rite of union with the Goddess herself.

I would imagine there were a few people who ended up much like Mr. David Carradine-dead. At some point upon the creeping advances of old age, and all the anxieties it brings, many might well have paid for this final service, the prospect of dying and permanently joining the entourage ofAphrodite, or some similar goddess.

The question would be, why would anybody today even start out doing something like this? Who out there wants to take the chance of ending up like Carradine, dead in a hotel closet, hung by a nylon cord (according to some accounts, a curtain draw-string), with a shoe-string tied around your genitals? I think I'll take a pass on that one.

On the other hand, this is evidently a form of bizarre sexual addiction. I guess once you've been "initiated" once, you find yourself hooked, in a bad way.

Still, the mystery persists in Carradine's case. One coroner declared that he died as a result of asphyxiation during masturbation. He was completely alone. The security cameras of the hotel in which he was staying in Bangkok, Thailand (he was there to film a movie), seems to verify this report. No one was noted entering or leaving Carradine's room, supposedly.

Yet, according to other reports, his hands were tied behind his back. Well, I suppose this is possible. He could have rigged the ropes in such a way as to back into them, inserting his hands through the loop as to maneuver it in such a way as to draw it closed. The question then becomes, why?

The answer might well be that Carradine was by all accounts something of a freak, with evidently little self-control in such matters as his sexual proclivities, or his prodigious spending habits. The same ex-wife who in documented court papers declared years ago that he engaged in sexual habits that were "potentially deadly", also claimed that he had a seemingly on-going incestuous relationship with an unnamed close family member, and refused to stop or seek therapy.

He was a freak, but he seems to have been a happy freak, albeit with somewhat of a violent nature. He once destroyed a hotel door in Canada, and according to the same ex-wife enjoyed the company of individuals of dubious character.

Now, the man that starred in three television series (Shane, Kung Fu, and Kung Fu-The Legend Continues)and over one hundred movies, including recently the Quentin Tarantino series Kill Bill, and who won numerous awards and nominations, a man who came from a an established acting family, and who was himself unarguably the most successful of the entire clan, is dead, for what seems like a pretty stupid reason.

He was seventy-two years old. I have an idea at least one person won a bundle on one of the Hollywood death pools.

He was without a doubt the most famous person known to have perished in this fashion. There was however at least one other, a former member of the band INXS, who is said to have died the same way.

Sexual addiction is a sad state of affairs. I would imagine its killed more than a few people, and certainly contributed to the demise of many. But to die alone, if he really was alone, through an act of what amounts to masturbation, assuming all the reports are accurate-that has got to be unique. Sad, but unique.