OVO

Science Daily: Rare Plants And Endangered Species Such As Tigers At Risk From Traditional Medicine [LINK-ZUM]

Two reports from TRAFFIC, the world's largest wildlife trade monitoring network, on traditional medicine systems in Cambodia and Vietnam suggest that illegal wildlife trade, including entire tiger skeletons, and unsustainable harvesting is depleting the region's rich and varied biodiversity and putting the primary healthcare resource of millions at risk. The results of field studies carried out between 2005 and 2007 found a significant number of Cambodians and Vietnamese rely on traditional medicine. Relaxation of international trade barriers, the impact of free market economies and complex national government policies have led to an increase in the demand and supply for flora and fauna used in traditional medicine. The growing illegal wildlife trade in the region is fuelled by the difficulty of sourcing prescribed ingredients, including parts, from globally threatened species.

[Article continues at link. Rather than blaming capitalism for the loss of these plants and animals, I'd blame superstition. There is no medicinal value to be found in a tiger skeleton. Keeping that superstition in circulation to honor cultural diversity is what's killing the tigers off. You can either have hurtful superstitious nonsense treated with respect or you can have tigers. You can't have both. Scientific criticism of these traditional medicines will save the lives of rare plants and animals. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: magick, science

OVO at esozone.com [LINK-ZUM]

"The new issue of Trevor Blake's OVO Magazine features many Esozone participants: Anonymous, Johnny Brainwash, Klint Finley, Vincent Al Ken, Wes Unruh, and Edward Wilson. Plus many other fine contributors. For those not in the know, OVO has been published by Trevor Blake since 1987."

Labels: blog, magick, ovo, periodical, portland, trevorblake, zine

Entartete Kunts [LINK-ZUM]

"Entartete Kunts" is a playful bastardization of the German term "degenerate art" and a snide reference to the 1937 Nazi purging of all art deemed objectionable by "Der Fuhrer." This unfortunate pun seems somehow appropriate for a bunch of drooling degenerates that consistently crank out uncompromising eyesores with seemingly little regard for commercial viability or good taste. As it turns out, the title also insures that many local businesses will refuse to display the flyer or otherwise promote this annual optic apocalypse. Entartete Kunts is in fact a very special exhibition that assembles some of the most devoted artists from around the world for a rare glimpse into a thriving and still largely renegade culture!

Featuring J. Petagno, Chris Reifert, Drew Elliott, Rev. Kriss Hades, Conny Cobra, Mannuel Tinnemans, Nor Prego, Glenn Smith, Strephon Taylor, T. Ketola, Joseph A. Smith, French, Musta Aurinko, Paul "Unhinged" McCarroll, Bobby BeauSoleil and Dennis Dread.

OPENING RECEPTION
Friday JUNE 20 2008
7pm-10pm
OPTIC NERVE ARTS

[All text from press release. Dennis Dread is well known to readers of OVO as the cover artist for OVO 16 ANTICHRIST. See press release for remarkable biography of each artist. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: art, magick, music, satanism

Joe Bavier: Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital [LINK-ZUM]

Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft. Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur. [...] Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs. The 27 men have since been released.

[Article continues at link. I don't have any respect for such murderous nonsense. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: magick

Rationalist International: The Great Tantra Challenge [LINK-ZUM]

On 3 March 2008, in a popular TV show, Sanal Edamaruku, the president of Rationalist International, challenged India's most "powerful" tantrik (black magician) to demonstrate his powers on him. [...] India TV, one of India's major Hindi channels with national outreach, invited Sanal Edamaruku for a discussion on "Tantrik power versus Science". Pandit Surinder Sharma, who claims to be the tantrik of top politicians and is well known from his TV shows, represented the other side. During the discussion, the tantrik showed a small human shape of wheat flour dough, laid a thread around it like a noose and tightened it. He claimed that he was able to kill any person he wanted within three minutes by using black magic. Sanal challenged him to try and kill him.

[Article continues at link. Oh, this is a good one. Thanks to technoccult for the link. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: atheist, magick, television

Trevor Blake: Gary Gygax RIP [LINK-ZUM]

Around 1978 my father read an article in Parade Magazine that mentioned the game Dungeons and Dragons. He thought that sounded interesting and bought a copy. I went on to spend a shameful amount of his money on the game and games inspired by it. Getting on thirty years later, I often think about fantasy role playing games. I don't make time to play them, but I think about them. The good memories of those games will be with me for the rest of my life. And so a late thank you to the late Gary Gygax for his role in bringing such games into being. From an interview in 2003...

Q. While many people have accused Dungeons & Dragons (and roleplaying games in general) of being "inspired by the devil," don't you feel that there is some correlation between ritual magic (adoption of roles, costumes, gathering in circles) and the standard AD&D game playing session?

A. LOL. No. Frankly, I don't believe in magic. We all play roles - do you speak to a cop, your parents, your friends, your teacher, your boss, someone who works for you, etc., the same way? Of course not. People dress in costumes to go to parties and discos - to point out just a few such instances - and most people do not don costumes to play RPGs (as they do in live action RPGs). Playing any game, or having a meeting of a small number of people means "gathering in a circle."

Labels: games, magick

Ian Demsky: McNeil Island prison chaplain struggles with new multiple-faith rule [LINK-ZUM]

Tom Suss loves his job. A chaplain at McNeil Island prison, he's been with the state Department of Corrections for more than 15 years. "It's really a privilege to work there," the 63-year-old Catholic priest said in a recent interview. "When there's the opportunity to facilitate someone's realization of living differently, of making better choices, there's just no better high than that."

But Suss took a voluntary leave of absence at the beginning of the year because a new Corrections Department policy allowing inmates to profess multiple religions has put his faith into conflict with his duties as a state employee. He can take up to six weeks off and after that he's not sure what's going to happen. Though his bosses and peers speak highly of his work, he feels he might have to leave his profession behind.

"I'm thinking my days as a state chaplain might be finished," he said. At issue is whether in the state's efforts to protect inmates' freedom to worship, Suss should have to compromise his own religious convictions.

Article continues at link. Thanks as always to the excellent Religion Clause blog for the initial link . Prison chaplains are employees of the State. Their wages, insurance, mileage compensation, etc. are paid for by tax dollars. Is this not a case of the establishment of religion by the State? Can any other corrections employee - janitors, therapists, guards, secretaries - refuse to serve a prisoner based on their perceived religion?

There is no legal definition of religion. The benefit of this lack of a legal definition of religion is that it is made clear the State has no religious function. The State does not approve who is an is not clergy, who is and is not a member of any particular religion, and so on. These matters are left up to individuals. This also leaves the choice of being non-religious, even anti-religious, up to individuals.

The cost of this lack of a legal definition of religion is that at times religious individuals will overstep their domain of choice and attempt to make religious choices for others. Should an adult be able to decide the medical options available to their adult neighbor based on their religion? What if the medical option is abortion or euthanasia? Should an adult be able to decide the medical options available to their child based on their religion? The State is a poor judge in such matters, and that is why many of these choices are left up to individual states in the US and not decided at the Federal level.

In the case of prisoners, who cannot elect to move to a new state in the US if the state they are in does not accommodate their religion, the State has two choices. The first choice is to accommodate every expression of every religion by every prisoner. Prison clergy trained in every religion in human history must be available to anyone who summons them at any time, along with all the appropriate physical materials necessary to practice their religion. The second choice is to continue to consider religion a matter of individual choice, as is the case outside of prison, and not a service the State is obliged to provide.

Most religions include some influence from other religions. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all contain elements of earlier religions as well as shared elements. It is not the business of the State to define what is allowed within a single religion, and single religions contain elements of other religions. Just the same, it is not the business of the State to limit an individual to a single religion throughout their lifetime or concurrently.

Those who wish to offer religious services to prisoners should fund such services themselves. Prisoners should accept that the loss of some aspects of their religion are part of what is lost by being in prison. Prison clergy (if such a job should exist at all) must be prepared and willing to accommodate any religious expression from prisoners. The State should refrain from establishing religion. - Trevor Blake

Labels: christianity, magick, religion, theocracy

Christine Clarridge: Phony psychic sentenced for bilking woman of savings [LINK-ZUM]

A phony psychic who fled prosecution in Seattle and ended up on a wanted-fugitive list in Canada was sentenced Friday to 1 1/2 years in prison nearly nine years after tricking a lovesick woman into turning over her life savings to win back her boyfriend.

[Article continues at link... but the first sentence alone fills me with questions. If 79-year-old Sophie Evon was a 'phony psychic,' does that mean there are non-phony psychics? What law did Sophie Evon break in accepting money to cast magic spells? Is that law being equally applied to the leaders of every Christian church, Jewish temple, Muslim mosque, and every other spook house in town? The mainstream superstitions also accept money to cast magic spells. Sometimes the spells are supposed to work 'after death,' but sometimes they are supposed to work right here and right now. These are the kinds of court cases that the megachurches should be pouring their millions into winning, because if the state can decide that one brand of hokus-pokus is a crime, the state can decide another brand of hokus-pokus is also a crime. Theirs may be next. And while all my sympathies lie with the victim, who seems to have learned her lesson the hard way, I think the state has no business sanctioning superstitions. If people want to throw their money into the magic hat, that's their concern. When the state makes some superstitions illegal and allows others to remain legal, it establishes a state religion. The foundation documents of this country rightly forbid this. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity, islam, judaism, magick, theocracy

Esozone: EsoTech Occult Technology Release #3976 [LINK-ZUM]

[Esozone]

Labels: art, magick, portland

Trevor Blake: Sleep Chamber Wishes You a Merry XXX-Mas [LINK-ZUM]

Brad Miller is documenting the work of John Zewizz, aka Sleep Chamber. This is much-needed archival work, as Sleep Chamber was a band deserving of far more positive attention than it got. Anyone interested in the sort of sex-heavy occult electronic music of earlier Coil or Psychic TV would do well to see what America had to offer in that genre. I corresponded with John in the late 1980s, trading my zine for his videotapes. Sleep Chamber spawned Women of the SS, who became Women of Sodom. Here is a digitalization of a remarkably rare holiday compilation cassette edited by John Zewizz. John, wherever you are, take care and thank you.

Labels: magick, music, ovo, sex, zine

Trevor Blake: What Religion and Science Can Do for Us [LINK-ZUM]

Religion:
Tracy McVeigh, Children are targets of Nigerian witch hunt: Almost everyone goes to church here [the Niger Delta]. Driving through the town of Esit Eket, the rust-streaked signs, tarpaulins hung between trees and posters on boulders, advertise a church for every third or fourth house along the road. Such names as New Testament Assembly, Church of God Mission, Mount Zion Gospel, Glory of God, Brotherhood of the Cross, Redeemed, Apostalistic. Behind the smartly painted doors pastors make a living by 'deliverances' - exorcisms - for people beset by witchcraft, something seen to cause anything from divorce, disease, accidents or job losses. With so many churches it's a competitive market, but by local standards a lucrative one. But an exploitative situation has now grown into something much more sinister as preachers are turning their attentions to children - naming them as witches. In a maddened state of terror, parents and whole villages turn on the child. They are burnt, poisoned, slashed, chained to trees, buried alive or simply beaten and chased off into the bush. Some parents scrape together sums needed to pay for a deliverance - sometimes as much as three or four months' salary for the average working man - although the pastor will explain that the witch might return and a second deliverance will be needed. Even if the parent wants to keep the child, their neighbours may attack it in the street.

Science:
Robin Bal, Miracle Man Walks Again: He survived against all the odds; now Peng Shulin has astounded doctors by learning to walk again.When his body was cut in two by a lorry in 1995, it was little short of a Medical that he lived. It took a team of nearly 20 doctors to save his life. Skin was grafted from his head to seal his torso - but the legless Mr Peng was left only 78cm (2ft 6in) tall. Bedridden for years, doctors in China had little hope that he would ever be able to live anything like a normal life again. [...] But recently, he began exercising his arms, building up the strength to carry out everyday chores such as washing his face and brushing his teeth. Doctors at the China Rehabilitation Research Centre in Beijing found out about Mr Peng's plight late last year and devised a plan to get him up walking again. They came up with an ingenious way to allow him to walk on his own, creating a sophisticated egg cup-like casing to hold his body with two bionic legs attached to it. He has been taking his first steps around the center with the aid of his specially adapted legs and a resized walking frame. Mr Peng, who has to learn how to walk again, is said to be delighted with the device.

[Articles continue at links. Mr. Peng was cut in half and is today walking around, thanks to science. Those children murdered by superstitious monsters won't have a second chance. Sometimes theists talk about science and religion as seperate magistrate, each with its own contribution to the world. That seems supported by the facts, as science makes things better and religion makes things worse. Every day I ask myself what I can do to make religion less palatable to the average person. So far, the truth seems to be the most appropriate and effective tool. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity, magick, religion, science, transhuman

OVO blog at technoccult.com [LINK-ZUM]

"My 5 favorite blogs, right now: OVO blog - a new blog, from Trevor Blake. Trevor's been publishing the OVO zine for something like 2 decades, and has been blogging on American Samizdat for a few years as well. The OVO blog features extensive coverage of the damage done by religion, and the occasional old school fringe culture gem." - Klintron

Labels: blog, magick, ovo, periodical, religion, zine

Trevor Blake: Mamie Manneh [LINK-ZUM]

August 20, New York Sun: "The woman, who says she imported the monkey parts for religious ceremonies, has attracted pro bono legal assistance from a top law firm, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. And a professor of African religious traditions at Harvard Divinity School, Jacob Olupona, may testify on her behalf. At a hearing earlier this month, Chief Judge Raymond Dearie of U.S. District Court in Brooklyn ruled that Mamie Manneh, 39, of Staten Island, has legal standing to argue that her religious beliefs should exempt her from criminal prosecution for smuggling the contraband bushmeat."

November 14, New York Times: "A lawyer for a Staten Island woman charged with importing meat without proper licenses and mislabeling a shipment argued in Federal District Court yesterday that the charges should be dismissed because they impinge on the importer's right to freedom of religion."

November 17, New York Times: "No law specifically bans their importation, but Mamie Manneh, 39, of Staten Island, an immigrant from Liberia, is accused of falsely labeling her delivery and failing to obtain proper permits, charges that could bring a maximum prison sentence of five years. Her lawyer has made a motion to dismiss the indictment, arguing that bushmeat has spiritual significance and Ms. Manneh's actions were protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act."

November 24, Associated Press: "From her baptism in Liberia to Christmas years later in her adopted New York City, Mamie Manneh never lost the longing to celebrate religious rituals by eating monkey meat. Now, the tribal customs of Manneh and other West African immigrants have become the focus of an unusual criminal case charging her with meat smuggling, and touching on issues of religious freedom, infectious diseases and wildlife preservation. The case 'appears to be the first of its kind relating to that uniquely African product,' defense attorney Jan Rostal wrote in a pending motion to dismiss. 'Unfortunately, it represents the sort of clash of cultural and religious values inherent in the melting pot that is America.' [...] A criminal complaint cited evidence that the illegal importation of bushmeat encourages the slaughter of protected wild animals. More ominously, the complaint warned of 'the potential health risks to humans linking bushmeat to diseases like Lassa fever, Ebola, HIV, SARS and monkeypox.' Defense attorney Rostal has countered by accusing the government of picking on a poorly educated immigrant. Her client's only offense, she said, was her inability to grasp Western attitudes and highly technical regulations regarding bushmeat."

[Articles continue at links. Mamie Manneh is an attempted murderer who illegally imported the remains of endangered species into the USA for the purpose of eating them. Handling and consuming this animal can lead to some of the most nightmarish diseases known to humanity. Only spongiform encephalopathy and religion can soften the mind enough to cause a person to hold Mamie's 'culture' or 'sincere beliefs' worthy of consideration in this regard. It's easy to look around and see that no one around you is eating monkey and that almost anyone you ask would be horrified at the idea. It's easy to not lie to customs. It's easy to not run over people in cars. It's easy to not have nine kids that you can't take care of because you're in prison for trying to kill a woman. I wish it was easy for judges to laugh and scowl and toss her superstitions out of the courtroom. But that would mean tossing out superstitions that are in better favor with the majority, such as Christianity and Judaism and Islam. How much better it would be if the Constitution of the United States were in effect, and there was no establishment of religion in America. - Trevor Blake.]

Labels: christianity, islam, judaism, magick, theocracy

Trevor Blake in Willamette Week, 14 November 2007 [LINK-ZUM]

Thank you for Adrian Chen's article "Shifting Fortunes." I am glad that Portland has no laws against fortune telling. Fortune telling and psychic powers may or may not exist, and they may or may not be accurate, but even if they don't exist or consistently fail it does no good to outlaw what is wrong. People must be free to try new things, including things that might fail at their cost.

The psychics in your paper might be happy to learn that an easy one million dollars is theirs for the taking if they can demonstrate their powers to the James Randi Educational Foundation (www.randi.org). There are any number of charitable organizations who are in need of this money should the psychics in question not be in it for the money.

- Trevor Blake

Labels: magick, periodical, portland, trevorblake

Bill Estep: Snakebite victim's family sues [LINK-ZUM]

As a woman bitten by a rattlesnake during a church service in London struggled to breathe, hospital employees made derogatory comments about her religious beliefs rather than providing proper care, contributing to her death, a lawsuit charges. The case arises from the Nov. 5, 2006, death of Linda F. Long, 48, a London [Kentucky] homemaker. Police said at the time that Long was handling a yellow timber rattler during a service at East London Holiness Church when the snake bit her on the right cheek. People bitten by poisonous snakes during religious services sometimes refuse medical treatment. But others at that service quickly took Long to Marymount Medical Center in London. [...]

Long's heart stopped on the way. She was pronounced dead at 10:50 p.m. at the University of Kentucky Medical Center. The defendants named in the lawsuit are the hospital; Faith Howard, the registered nurse who allegedly met Long outside the emergency room; and Dr. Edward Wilson, who was on duty in the emergency room. Long's husband, Gary Wayne Long, and daughter Angela Shackleford, who was appointed to administer her estate, are the plaintiffs. The suit says Howard's failure to quickly and properly treat Long contributed to her death, and that Wilson's failure to give proper treatment contributed to the severity of her condition and "resulted in her ultimate demise." The hospital failed to adhere to proper standards of care, the lawsuit says. The complaint also says the unprofessional comments about Long's religious beliefs were discriminatory and caused her and her family emotional pain and humiliation.

[Article continues at link. All sympathy to the family and friends of Linda Long. Linda Long appears to have followed Mark 16:17-18, which states: "And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." Unfortunately she was hurt by the snake she picked up, and no laying on of hands made her get well. Her death is one the outcomes of belief in invisible monsters that live in the sky. Those around her did well to suspend pretend-time and take her to a secular medical hospital. It is sad that some of them are now attacking those who might have helped her instead of the men and women who actually killed her - those who encouraged her to place faith in a two-thousand-year-old book of mean spirited and boring fairy tales above simple common sense. Nothing will ever bring Linda Long back from the dead, but if her death convinces even one person to not do as she did then her death will not be in vain. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity, magick

Tom Breen: Pagan Holidays Added to Excused Absences [LINK-ZUM]

When George Fain visits a grave to mark a pagan holiday, she won't have to worry about the work she's missing in her classes at Marshall University. That's because her absence Thursday on the Samhain holiday has been approved by the Huntington school, which for the first time is recognizing pagan students' desire to be excused from class for religious holidays and festivals. [...] "I think we may have opened a door," she said. "Now that we know we can be protected, that the government will stand behind us and we feel safe, it's going to be more prevalent."

[Article continues at link. A door has indeed been opened. There's no way to shut that door if Fain later switches to another superstition, such as Christianity. Fain gets Samhain off as a pagan and would have every right to expect Christmas off as a Christian. Or Ramadan off as a Muslim, or Passover off as a Jew. Huntington school must soon initiate a policy of not allowing people to change superstitions if it wants to keep students in class at all. Between all the superstitions I'm sure that most if not every day is some sort of Holy Day. That door just opens more and more wide once it gets started. Except there doesn't seem to be a provision for atheists. Could I get a day off from Huntington school because I sincerely don't believe in God? That door doesn't open much, if at all. A more reasonable policy might be for schools and employers to offer a set number of 'no questions asked' days off. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: atheist, christianity, education, islam, magick

Trevor Blake: Two Articles from All Africa [LINK-ZUM]

Edwin Nuwagaba: "Documentary On 'False' Pastors is Out." Like the saying, "old habits die hard," there is tension brewing in church over pastors who were once witch doctors but declared that they had got saved and began churches. Cross sections in church believe that it is these 'witch doctors' that are responsible for the current crisis in the born again churches. Top stories of 'men of God' using charms and electric gadgets to perform miracles, sodomy, raping girls and snatching wives and husbands of members of their flock, have of recent dominated front pages in newspapers, tainting the image of born again churches.

Hussein Bogere: "I Helped Top Pastor Con Aids Patients." A prominent female Kampala pastor bribed and blackmailed worshippers to fake health ailments as serious as HIV/Aids so that she could then claim to have healed them, a parishioner alleged in a recent interview. The same pastor is being accused of using spies to learn secrets about members of her congregation and then using that information to extort funds- allegations that threaten to further discredit Ugandan pastors, several of whom have come under fire in recent months for dishonesty and improper use of funds.

[Articles continue at link. Replacing witch doctors with Christians is not going to help the situation. The answer is not to replace an old superstition with a new one. The answer is to educate people regarding the fact that none of these superstitions are worth keeping around, that science alone offers the means to treat disease, that morals are independent of superstition, that training people to believe obvious falsehoods softens their minds for unscrupulous uses. I'd rather see aid going to a group like the Ugandan Humanist Association than any religious group. There's certainly a need for it.]

Labels: christianity, magick

Canadian Press: Toronto fortune teller arrested in Calgary [LINK-ZUM]

A senior known to work as a fortune teller was arrested by Calgary police earlier this week. Sophie Evon, 77, is wanted for allegedly bilking a love-lorn woman from Seattle out of her family's savings of $220,000. She had been sought by U.S. police since 1999 and was arrested in 2002 while working at a tarot shop in Toronto. But before she was extradited to the U.S., she fled.

[Article continues at link. What crime did Sophie Evon commit? If she promised her magic would accomplish something and it failed to occur, does that mean that other magic promises that go unfulfilled are also subject to legal action? Every clergy member in the US and Canada should pay attention to this case, because the governments of two nations are acting in tandem to recognize that prayer fails and supernatural promises can be illegal. The State is asserting that it may establish which magic works and which magic doesn't work. This is therefore a Constitutional issue in the United States, where the State is forbidden from establishing one superstition over another. I encourage the withering away of this sorts of fraud by encouraging rational thought and a bit of teasing aimed at the superstitious. Unfortunately, some people learn their lessons in much more painful ways. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: magick

Catholic Information Service for Africa: Catholic Church Fights Against Witchcraft Menace [LINK-ZUM]

Witchcraft is one of the biggest challenges facing the Catholic Church in Central African Republic, a bishop said. Many people find "no natural explanation for death, sickness or natural disasters", and instead look for a scapegoat, who must have caused the misfortune through witchcraft, said Bishop Peter Marzinkowski of Alindao Diocese.

Suspected witches are punished and may even be killed, a German missionary recently told the German-based international Catholic pastoral charity, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). Bishop Marzinkowski said belief in witchcraft existed even among Christians because the faith is not yet sufficiently deeply rooted. The result is that "at the least difficulty they relapse back into their traditional way of thinking".

[Article continues at link. I would have thought that the problems of AIDS, war and poverty might be more pressing in Africa. It is probably easier for Christians to fight against imaginary problems than real problems. Easier still that the solution to ending superstition is to replace it with a different superstition. If people have no natural explanation for death, sickness or natural disasters then they don't need to be given a supernatural explanation. They need to be given and accept the natural explanation. The natural explanation is secular science, atheism and reason. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: atheist, christianity, magick

CLEWS: Coral Watts Back in the Dock [LINK-ZUM]

Coral Eugene Watts began attacking women in 1969. He soon escalated to murder. He lived in suburban Detroit, but usually drove 1-2 hours to find his victims. By the time he was caught in 1982, his unimpeded rampage ended dozens of lives. [...] Watts killed women because he thought they were evil. It's a word he used very often. He was deeply religious and a regular churchgoer all his life. He was concerned about being haunted by the spirits of his victims, so he took strange steps to keep the "spirits" at bay, i.e. in one case, after murdering a woman in her apartment, Watts disrobed and bathed her in what the author dubbed an "evil baptism" to keep her spirit at peace and at bay. In other cases, he took the women's shoes or purses and then burned them, for the same reason, he said, to keep their spirits away.

[Article continues at link. This deeply religious man, a regular churchgoer, died of prostate cancer on September 21, 2007. He is not haunted by the spirits of his victims, nor is he in hell as a punishment for his sins, nor is he in heaven as a reward for his faith. He is simply dead. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity, magick

Trevor Blake: Kill 'Em All, Let God Sort 'Em Out [LINK-ZUM]

According to a report by the Democratic Policy Committee, the Bush administration cut off veterans' health care, despite growing need as veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan; shortchanged veterans' health because it failed to budget for returning veterans; is imposing higher care fees for veterans; and veterans' health care still fall short. But Bush has a plan! Something that costs nothing, is supported by the courts and literally works miracles...

Ryan Foley writes: "The Department of Veterans Affairs' increasing use of religion in treating ailing veterans does not violate the separation of church and state, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge John Shabaz dismissed a lawsuit by the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation and defended the agency's practices in his decision Monday, saying religion can help patients heal and is legal when done on a voluntary basis. [...] The group's president, Annie Laurie Gaylor, said Tuesday it would appeal the ruling. 'I think the public will be startled to learn that if you're a VA patient and you want a referral to the eye doctor, you have to have a spiritual assessment in order to do that,' Gaylor said.

"The lawsuit challenged the agency's practice of giving most patients spiritual assessments that ask questions about faith, such as how often they attend church and how important religion is in their lives. Agency officials say the assessments help them determine patients' needs. The suit also targeted VA drug and alcohol treatment programs that incorporate religion, the integration of its chaplain program into patient care and the expansion of chaplain services for outpatient veterans instead of just those at VA hospitals."

How awesome that magic spells are going to take care of the vets that Bush isn't going to take care of! I wish he'd thought to use magic spells to fight the terrorists in the first place instead of real human beings, but no need to focus on the negative. And I feel GREAT that my tax dollars are being kept out of the stem cell research business and invested in the magic spell business.

Originally posted to American Samizdat, January 22, 2007.

Labels: fascism, magick

Scott Baldauf: In Congo, superstitions breed homeless children [LINK-ZUM]

Three months ago, Kisungu Gloire considered himself fortunate. A 13-year-old refugee, he had a house to sleep in, food to eat, and a stepmother who took care of him as one of her own.
Then one day, Kisungu's fragile world fell apart.

His stepmother delivered a baby that was stillborn. She blamed Kisungu, calling him a witch. She had a dream that Kisungu was trying to kill her, and then tried to burn him with a flaming plastic bag. She took him to a priest to perform an exorcism, but when that appeared to have failed, she finally stopped feeding him and told him to get out.

"When I would ask for food, she refused," he says. "Another time I asked for food, she took a kitchen knife and cut me in the eye. When I talked with my brother, he said, 'Just drop it.' So then I moved out onto the streets."

[Article continues at link. Fortunately, things are totally different here in the USA. There are no teenagers kicked out of their parent's house because their parent's superstition can't accept them being gay. And all of the babies born because their mother's superstition can't accept abortion are adopted immediately by loving, capable families. Thank goodness that in the United States, superstition doesn't breed homeless children. American Samizdat, November 20 2006 - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity, magick, sex

atheist tags [LINK-ZUM]

9/11 atheist buddhism christianity hindu islam judaism magick mormon philosophy religion satanism scientology subgenius subud theocracy watchtower

Labels: 9/11, atheist, buddhism, christianity, hindu, islam, judaism, magick, mormon, philosophy, religion, satanism, scientology, subgenius, subud, theocracy, watchtower

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