Sunday, March 27, 2005

Poor Families Not Allowed on the "Do Not Call" List? Bush Gives Poor Children's Telephone Numbers To Military Recruiters

After all the trouble that people have gone through to avoid being harassed at home by unwanted telephone calls, a national "Do Not Call" list was established. But guess how George W. Bush got around that? By slipping into his "No Child Left Behind" law a provision allowing the private family telephone numbers of CHILDREN who don't pass tests (the ones being left behind) to be culled from their school records by military recruiters. These military recruiters then hound these kids to join the military. Of course these are NOT the children of economically well-off families so the USA continues its tradition of shoving its poorest into the military, but now is even more aggressive. With Bush's No Child Left Behind Law, these children who have been left behind by conservative political policies all their lives so that their future are dim by high school, are then swept into the military after being persuaded that there really is no other viable option for them.

This aggressive violation of privacy authorized by Bush is also taking its toll on recruiters. who spend several hours a day cold-calling high school students, whose phone numbers are provided by schools under the No Child Left Behind Law.

So who is organizing parents at schools across the country to demand that their children's school records NOT be accessible to the federal government or military recruiters, that their telephone numbers not be culled from their children's school records and that their underage children NOT be telehoned by military recruiters preying on their children (whose lives have been adversely affected by conservative political and fiscal policies), hoping to persuade them to join the military????

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Republican Politics and the Fear of Death

Ignoring that in the past seven years, this case has already been reviewed by more than three dozen judges and justices on both the state and federal level, congressional leaders proudly announced Saturday that they would pass a law moving Schiavo's case to federal court and effectively requiring that her feeding tube be reinserted while a new round of appeals begins.

So frightened of death are we in the USA that we play political and religious games to try to take the place of God and the cycle of life and death. When will Bush and his Republican gameplayers realize they are not God and that the Schiavo case is personal, not political?

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Are We Surprised? Cancerian Dubya Calls His Mother to the Rescue

Moody, and with the strong potential to be oversensitive, pinchingly mean and isolationist, Cancer is also the sign of the Mother - so are we surprised? that Dubya has called her to push his Social Security plan that will give his rich broker friends trillions of dollars in fees?

I think not.

Hmm, Barbara Bush has never had to financially plan for retirement, nor rely on Social Security. What can she say that is of worth? Not one of the 17 grandchildren in the Bush family will ever see poverty because of their family inheritances, wealth and familial Saudi connections. So again, what worthwhile thing can she say? We shall see......

I also ponder this: did you notice that the plan says it "allows" people under age 50 to play the stock market to try to get some retirement income, rather than the truth - that it will FORCE them to play the form of gambling we know as the stock market?

Can forcing people to play the stock market game of chance be made a legitimate government law or policy?

Friday, March 18, 2005

Cooking on the Cote d'Azur - Les Petits Farcis

Mmmmm the smells of delicious Poulet à la Nicoise and strawberry tarts is wafting across the globe. I find myself running in the direction of thes wonderful aromas. The source? Les Petits Farcis, a wonderful short-term cooking class being offered in Nice, France by Rosa Jackson.

Ooh la la! It brings tears to my eyes to think of the pleasure of eating beautiful food in a beautiful place........... Eating good food is not only delicious to the palate, but healing to the soul.

If you are interested in learning how to make some delicious French dishes Rosa teaches friendly, hands-on half-day and full-day sessions year-round in the historic center of Nice sur la mer Méditeranée.

One of great joys I always experience when I travel to France is shopping at the markets. You can share this joy with Rosa! As part of her cooking classes, after shopping with her at the famous Cours Saleya market, students prepare a four-course meal in her beautifully renovated 17th-century apartment, two minutes from the market and the beach.

For those who want to savor some of the freshest and most tempting food in the world without spending time in the kitchen, she also offers market tours, gourmet food walks and an olive oil tasting with lunch in a restaurant.

Nice has its own international airport so it serves as a starting point for visitors to Provence and northern Italy, it is ideally placed for this type of flexible class.That's not the only reason why Rosa chose Nice, however. The city's unique history - it was part of Italy until the 1850s - has given it a fascinating cuisine that borrows from Italy while remaining distinctly French (Nice has its own version of pesto, for instance). Students will recognize some classics of Provencal cooking, such as ratatouille, but will also discover less familiar dishes such as tempura-style zucchini flowers, or fresh strawberry tart with homemade strawberry jelly.

A typical schedule I learned is

  • Market tour with hands-on cooking class, four-course meal and wine,
    9.30am-3pm.
  • Market tour, cooking class and lunch with wine, followed by an
    afternoon gourmet food walk, 9.30am-6pm.
  • Market tour, gourmet food walk, olive oil tasting and restaurant
    lunch with wine, 9.30am-3pm.
  • Afternoon gourmet food walk with tastings, 3-6pm.


Full details, including prices, are available on the website www.petitsfarcis.com. Rosa Jackson can be reached for interviews by e-mail at rosa@rosajackson.com or by phone at (33) 6 8167 4122.

Astrology, Astronomy & the New Age Movement

Astrology and astronomy are not a new phenomenon. Astrology and astronomy are both hundred of thousands of years old. From the beginning of time humans have been reading the sky for guidance. Astrology and astronomy are connected. Astronomy cannot be used to disprove the accuracy and validity of astrology.

In fact, astronomy and astrology complement each other and reveal how humankind has learned to understand the universe. Until approximately 1750, astronomers were also astrologers as both subjects were recognized as connected and treated as twin sciences.

In fact, if you ever visit the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, you will find a tapestry that is a portrait of 18th century Jesuit priest and missionary Adam Schall von Bell speaking with the Emperor of China, Shunzhi. Bell, a Jesuit priest, was also president of the astrological society there and was astronomy advisor to the emperor.

Astrology, with its ancient history, is not part of, nor a sub-category of the 1960s New Age spirituality movement.

One of the earliest cycles that humans paid attention to were the cycles of day and night, of the moon and sun wheeling around in the sky. People planted crops, planned conceptions, plotted battles and navigated by the stars, giving names to the constellations. People gave meaning to each part of the cycle and to each part of the sky.

Astrologers, or Magi as they were also later known, divided each year into twelve parts, and named each section after the constellation which was primary during that section of time. The Sun Sign for a person describes which quadrant the Sun is found in during the person's birth. Each constellation, or sign, has a set of personality characteristics associated with it.

Here is the list of sun signs and dates.

Aries: March 19-April 20 Libra: September 22-October 23
Taurus: April 20-May 21 Scorpio: October 23-November 23
Gemini: May 21-June 20 Sagittarius: November 23-December 21
Cancer: June 20-July 22 Capricorn: December 21-January 18
Leo: July 22-August 23 Aquarius: January 18-February 18
Virgo: August 23-September 22 Pisces: February 18-March 19

History

Astrology has a long and robust history. This part of the free astrology lesson covers the thousands of years that mankind has studied astrology.

Humankind has studied the passage of stars and given names to constellations since they could speak and write. The first records we have of astrology date back to the Sumerians, in 4,000 BC. The astrologers at the time paid attention to the moon and its course, tracking eclipses and lunar events.

By the time of the Babylonians, and 1,000 BC, the planets and stars had been added to the tracking systems. When a baby was born, its charts would be documented to help foretell what the child would face in life.

The Assyrians, in 700 BC, gave the constellations the names we use today. They set down many of the rules that have survived over 2,000 years to modern day society. The Greeks and Romans further researched and studied the rules.

Astrologers were present at the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christian Christos or Messiah.

Kings have historically ruled their countries with astrologers on their official staffs assisting them with strategy. Even in the late 20th century. U.S. President Ronald Reagan used an astrologer (albeit covertly) to guide him in leading the United States of America. He was considered one of the most strategic and successful presidents in history.

It was when Western Christianity in Europe to gain power that astrology was first labeled as "dangerous" and a "sin". The leaders of the Christian Church sought to gain control of the masses and they could not do so if they practiced any other type of spirituality that did not put the church leaders in charge. They felt that any way of determining one's fate other than trusting in God was evil. They worked to wipe out all native traditions, including fertility festivals, harvest festivals and astrology.

Astrology in the Modern World
As Christian movements such as the Spiritualist churches began to spread in the American West in the early 1900s, people began to look again to native traditions that were earth-centered, and/or included astrology, the Tarot forms of divination and prophecy.

In addition to the main Sun sign, each person also has a Moon sign and other planetary signs. These all indicate where the heavenly bodies were situated at the person's birth. These all influence the person's personalities in different ways. But it is vital to know that if you want to ever have an accurate description of yourself according to your natal (birth) chart, you must know the time you were born. Why?

Because while the Sun was in a certain degree and sign when you were born, the constellation that was on the horizon when you were born where you were born determines which constellations are in which section when looking at your chart. For example, someone born September 2, 1975 in Nuuk, Greenland may have a Sun in Virgo, but by being born at 10am, the constellation on the horizon from where that person was born was Libra and it happened to be at 19 degrees. Thus, this person with a Virgo Sun has a Libra Ascendant and will find it more accurate to read horoscopes for Libras. It would also be helpful, since it is more than halfway into Libra, in some cases for this person to read horoscopes for Scorpio. Daily, weekly or monthly horoscopes for Virgo will generally be inaccurate.

With the stars, moons and planets wheeling through the sky, the chart changes every four minutes or so, thus, even twins are usually born with different charts. If two people are actually born within those same 4 minutes, they are called "astral twins".

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Saturn in Cancer: Bush demands UN renounce all women's abortion rights

George Bush demands the United Nations renounce all women's right to an abortion.



Bush has steadily reversed Washington's support for such initiatives, blocking US funds to the UN population fund, and diverting cash towards programmes promoting abstinence and denying funds to organizations that offer sex education and information about abortion as an option.





Student Arrested as Terrorist for Writing About Zombies

Freedom of expression is not only being beaten to death, it now goes beyond the grave to ecapsulate the undead.



Stephen King, beware.

New Moon in Pisces - March 10, 2005

There is a song in which a woman speaks of her true love, saying that he may be late but he is always right on time. Last month’s New Moon and Chiron in Aquarius opened the door for clearances, changes and removals. Now with this New Moon in Pisces, the positive reward is being placed in your hands. more...

Uranus in Pisces: Physicist Wins Spirituality Prize

The revolution has been simmering for years and is increasingly bubbling to the surface. We do not live in a random universe one scientist is being rewarded for acknowledging that fact.

Saturn in Cancer: Relief for California Nurses

The pincer clamping down on women-dominated professions (teaching, nursing, home healthcare workers) in California is being pounded with a very heavy hammer to make it let go. The sigh of relief from the pain is being heard from the members of the beleaguered California nurses.

Sunday, March 06, 2005

Uranus in Pisces - Dolphin Beaching Came After Navy Sub Exercise

The waters off Florida are a hub of activity and it is not because of an early college Spring Break season.

Scientists have a few theories on how sonar hurts whales and dolphins, including that it ruptures their sensitive ears, or that it scares them into rising too fast to the surface to escape the loud noise, causing a kind of marine mammal version of the bends. Yet the Bush Administration and the U.S. Navy want to continue even though they are the only apparent cause of dolphin deaths following their sub sonar exercises.

For some absurd reason they think that refusing to admit they used sonar when asked about it will make people think they have not used sonar. We all know that the U.S. government's "no comment" means yes, it did what it.

This use of sonar and its subsequent killing of marine life is nothing new. The Navy has already admitted it caused such damage in January 2005.

Once again the Bush Administration and the USA is outside of the international community and thumbing its nose at it, refusing to stop using sonar.

The environment, especially the forests and the oceans, continue to take a massive beating under Republican administrations. The Pentagon has already weakened the Marine Mammal Protection Act so it can do more military work in the ocean and kill the life that naturally is found there.

What will be the consequences when so many dolphins and whales have been stranded by sonar that they are virtually extinct? I think the consequences are going to be something horrific on land that we cannot imagine.

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Celebrity Pisces: Gabriel García Márquez

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of the most influential and critically acclaimed authors of all time. more...

Saturn in Cancer: Women fear losing rights in new Iraq

Women fear losing rights in new Iraq



So, is THIS what U.S. style democracy means? Is this the democracy and freedom U.S. troops are there fighting for?

Saturn in Cancer: Picasso and Bacon

The last time Saturn was in Cancer, from 1973 - 1976, the great artist Pablo Picasso died. Now, 30 years later he is being celebrated anew in Paris along with Francis Bacon!

Saturn in Cancer: Take Back The Music

The problem, said Davis, is that the image of the black woman portrayed in many hip-hop videos has become the pervasive image of black women. And, according to Essence research, the main consumers of hip-hop are young, affluent, white men. She fears that society as a whole is getting a "sick" image of what black women are all about.

I heard this as I journeyed to Spelman College. This statement comes from Michaela Angela Davis, and editor at Essence Magazine.Her statement is part of the campaign called Take Back The Music that is being led by Esssence Magazine and some Black women who are fed up with overly sexualized and demeaning images being presented of Black women in hip-hop and American society in general.

This is going to be explosive. Thirty years after the attempt to get the ERA Amendment to the US Consitution, this movement will most likely have a lasting impact.

The series of articles, articles and dialogue taking place is not shying away from the hard acts and ugly truths. This is a woman's movement of significance. The fact that the main consumers are younf, affluent, white males opens the door to acknowledgement that this is how and why Black women are not seen as competent in the professional world and the workplace in general. These same Caucasian men get put into the hiring nad decisionmaking positions that judge who and who is not fit for a job, especially a high-paying high power job. If these men are spending their youth and young adult age viewing Black women as whores, prostitutes, sleazy dancers, strippers and purely mindless big breasted, nearly-naked and always primed for sex, they are NOT going to let them have equal opportunity in the business world/workplace.

Stanley Crouch of the New York Daily News makes it clear that this is hurting U.S. Black women, who are, as a result of the sick lyric and images of hip-hop, apporached outside the U.S. as though they are global prostitutes.

Dubya's Dumbing Down of a Nation

How a nation spend its money, where it spends its money, is very revealing about the nature of the nation. The largest cut in Bush's proposed budget is in education.

He wants to sink more money into his "No Child Left Behind" program, but other than that, a wide range of educational programs benefitting low-income children and families is being eliminated....such as HUD low-income community housing grants.....and foreign language learning is being gutted even as the military is bleeding for lack of linguists (because its "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy led most of the linguists to leave, as they tended to be homosexual. That is a post for another day, to talk about the implicatons of the fact that the most well-educated men in the military were deemed unfit to serve because of their sexual orientation. What exactly does that say about the education level of those who remain in the military?).

The USA barred Germany and Japan from building weapons after the World Wars of the 20th century, so those countries ploughed their money into education and whipped the pants off the USA in science, technology, mathematics, languages....and learning in general. They still beat the USA hands down today in science mathematics, technology and multi-lingualism. With the current budget and the upcoming proposals, nothing is changing, perhaps only getting worse.

How many US students graduate from high school fluent in at least three languages and well versed in mathematics and science? Do we care? Does the Bush Administration care?

Maybe we do not want to hear the answer....

Saturn in Cancer: The Big Crab, Secret-keeping and Silencing of Challenges

Cancer is a sign which can live up to its archetype - the hardshelled oversensitive Crab that hides within and uses secrets and secretive behavior to gets it own way and be in charge. Now we hear of Bush using a little known executive privilege - or as some would say, mis-using it - to get way with ethically troubling practices he advocates against those he sees as threats.
Doing this, he can unfairly end lawsuits that seek to take away the veil of secrecy which cloaks Bush, his advisors, his administration and his/its practices.

Today's revelation shows it has been used many times in the last few years by him to quash oppostion to things not related to his war on Iraq. This includes circumventing the Freedom of Information Act, racial discrimination in employment, Bush's suport of delivering people to other countries so they can be tortured, and more.

The Arar case, which involved the US shackling the Canadian citizen and then flying him to Jordan and then Syria where he was abused and imprisoned for 10 months.

National security is not in question when this privilege is being invoked; George Bush's Cancerian over-sensitivity and desire to hide his deeds as well as evade taking responsibility for them, is at the heart of it, so it appears.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Swift Boat Veterans/"USA Next" Attacks AARP

The momentous divide in the USA continues to widen. It appears the members of the Swift Boat Veterans who launched a PR attack on Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry on behalf of George Bush as now going after the AARP because it won't support Bush's stock market based Social Security scheme.

USA Next Chairman Charlie Jarvis, and United Seniors Association founder Richard Viguerie will be blending those direct-mail tactics with new Internet-based fundraising. Jarvis was executive vice president of Focus on the Family, a fundamentalist religious group that promotes fundamentalist political causes. Their most recent campaign was the one supporting Bush's Medicare prescription-drug program by using millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry.

Their plans: an initial $10 million campaign accusing AARP of a "shameful record of liberal activism," including backing what they see as bad: gay marriage. They have already begun with an Internet ad last week that asserted AARP supports gay marriage. It included a picture of two men kissing at what appeared to be their wedding over the words, "The real AARP agenda." The goal appears to be to tarnish the image of the AARP, one of the most influential voting blocs in the USA.

They've hired strategist Chris LaCivita and they are working on getting the same media firm that devised the Swift Boat ads, Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm. Also, Creative Response Concepts, a public relations firm that worked for the Swift Boat Veterans, and Regnery Publishing, which produced an anti-Kerry book for the Swift Boat group, also are supporting their efforts.


AARP says it has taken no position on gay marriage and dismisses USA Next's attacks. "We've deliberately not responded to erroneous accusations of USA Next because USA Next does not propose legislation, vote on legislation, nor does it sign legislation into law," spokesman Steve Hahn said.
Sen. Jon Corzine (news, bio, voting record), D-N.J., called on President Bush last week to repudiate the group. "The motive for USA Next's irresponsible use of such hot-button issues is not difficult to decipher; if you can't attack the message, attack the messenger," he wrote.

Do you think Bush will be saying anything to defend the AARP or dissasociate himself from the viewpoints and tactics of United Senior Citizens?

Book Review: MythAstrology

Since ancient times people have used stories - especially anecdotes and mythology - to communicate morals, values, life lessons and other messages. MythAstrology author Raven Kaldera has intetgrated the mythology of ancients goddesses and gods with their corresponding relationship to the planets and zodiac signs to produce a fine work. more...

The Tarot of Prague

Surrealist Andre Bréton once said that Prague is a magic city. It is a place historically filled with esoterica, art, the occult and those who practice astronomy, astrology and alchemy. Now Karen Mahony and Alex Ukolov have given the world a glimpse of this world that touches a place in your soul by designing the Tarot of Prague.











This deck contains 79 cards that resemble a fairy tale come alive (there are two Death cards, one more intense than the other) in a heavy bound folder secured with gold ribbons. The cards are a collage or rich colors and photographs with elements of the traditional graphics of Bohemian playing cards. The deck is a lesson in the art, architecture and history of Prague. The artistic styles of the cards vary from photographs of marble statues, Medieval to Art Deco genres and mosaics. The cards are medium-sized, quite stiff, and unlike most decks, only lightly laminated. They fit the hand well and are easy to shuffle. The back of each card has a reversible design with a palindromic protection charm (it can be read left to right or right to left) in the outside borders. Mahony has written a larger 301-page paperback as an accompaniment to the deck.

A l little white book (LWB) is permanently attached to the back binder, so that if you choose to buy only the deck, it is complete in itself. I believe most readers will want to buy the set that includes the larger book because it gives much more information about the cards, including:



  • Photographs from various places in Prague


  • Historical information on the city and associated figures


  • A brief description of the card


  • A short interpretation (one paragraph)


  • A full interpretation of eight to ten paragraphs


The first thing I did was to draw a card from the Major Arcana to gain insight about what Spirit wanted me to know. I drew The Chariot. It is a portrait of a mature, intense-looking woman in a crimson robe with a blue sash, driving a chariot pulled by two wild eagles. She is taken from the decorated ceiling of the Theology Hall at the Strahov Library. She is traveling along the Royal Route used by the Bohemian kings of Prague to travel to their coronation. One eagle is squawking at her, as if to question her authority. However this charioteer is calmly, successfully, in control. The message I get from Spirit is that I am to remain a woman of faith, be confident in my goals and continue to pursue them; I can also expect that there will be those who will “sqawk” at me and try to distract me but in the end I will reach my goals.



The second question I asked after shuffling the full deck was “What do my readers need to know?”. The answer came in the form of the Knight of Pentacles. This Knight is dressed in blue and the card is a mosaic taken from the Art Nouveau mosaic on the façade of the Municipal House. The message here is that there is a balance to be sought between patience and methodical work (which accomplishes much!) and taking some time to play and let your hair down. Let it all hang out! All work and no play is not healthy. Knights are about taking responsibility and this Knight certainly knows how to do that – perhaps too much! If you buy this deck, have FUN with it. Open yourself to the meaning and messages but also have fun with it.

At the back of Mahony’s book there is basic information about the Tarot, how to use it, and how to do readings with several spreads. There is even a special Tarot of Prague “Threshold Spread”.




The Major Arcana cards are titled but not numbered so you can decide for yourself where to place the Strength and Justice cards. Historically the Strength card has been 11, but in the Ride-Waite deck it is 8. Earlier I mentioned that there are two Death cards. One is a fully armored Death replete with staff and flag on the back of a horse, the other card presents a skeletal and robed Death, reclining with an arrow below a chaotic background scene.

The Tarot of Prague can be used for daily guidance with a Tarot journal, or for Tarot readings by users of all levels of ability. If you are an art of history aficionado, you will especially enjoy this deck.