‘When asked by Amy Goodman, the presenter, why the struggle was important, the simple response from one protester, who had been maced twice and bitten said, “Because water is life … I wish they would open their eyes and have a heart.”

The violence by the contractors is deeply worrying on many levels.

Firstly, it is state-sanctioned violence against peaceful protesters. The police stood idly by and did nothing.

“The cops watched the whole thing from up on the hills,” said Marcus Frejo, Pawnee and Seminole, from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. …

Sauron’s character is basically a fallen angel of the first tier, according to the author’s incipient Catholic world-view, second only to Satan himself (Melkor/Morgoth in Tolkien’s legendarium). I am convinced that Sauron is Tolkien’s version of Mammon, the first lieutenant of Lucifer in the late 16th-century demonology of Peter Binsfeld (German, Catholic bishop and theologian), a demonization of the second of the 7 Deadly Sins, that ‘sin’ being Greed. …

Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban Islamic State is an absolute catastrophe for women. A now phenomenally well-armed and militarily equipped catastrophe in possession of a billion-dollar U.S. war machine — sophisticated arsenals, computerized drones, ground to air high power armaments, remote incendiary devices, highly trained military and civilian captives/slaves — lacking only (with all hope) nuclear capability, whose main ideological target is the basic Human Rights of women and girls.

The Afghan government’s corruption was well known — resources seldom got to enlisted men in the homosocial, mafia-like, gangster culture of that nation. But the Taliban has still been able…

I heard National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan answer many of the bedevilling questions around the chaotic U.S. withdrawal of troops and allies from Afghanistan, and the problem of how pulling out thousands of U.S. sympathizers, allies or social progress workers in advance of the mass troop withdrawal would have signalled the country of their abandonment in a pronounced way and demoralized both the government in Kabul and the soldiers left behind, on the ground. This might trigger the fall of the government and the surrender of the rank and file — which happened anyway, at lightning speed.

I guess my…

I had a vision on the way to an international shamanism conference some years ago, of a totally renewed Earth, in around 4,000 years, with a low human population in balance with the planet and her many, reviving life forms, once again covered with forest. The planetary thermostat had fixed itself. The importance of vast, expansive wild range was again understood by humans, for all species, including humans.

Human society was different than now, more similar to prehistoric periods: small, local subscriber-type polities in contact with all other polities and systems in recognition of the basic substratum of connectedness. No…

Confession #1:

Forgive me Father for I have sinned. It has been forever since my last confession, at least in this lifetime. Here goes: I re-troll trolls all the time. I totally batter them with publication links, of which I always have a ready supply, mine and others’. Then I progress to their own page and post stuff.

If that’s not an option, if their page settings don’t allow posts from non-friends, I add links and well-worked out comments into the comment threads on their posts, or their friends’, never mind if they’re apropos of the thread topic or not…

Lammas is celebrated on or around August 1st, with the early harvest. “Lugh the Long-Armed Spearman” is also known as “Llew of the Ready Hand.” He is the god of light in the Underworld. He wields the fabled Hallow (of the Thirteen Hallows of Britain), the “Spear of Light.” thus armed, he represents the penetrating beams or shafts of sun energy which translate, through a gestation in the Underworld womb of the Earth Mother, into the prosperity of the harvest. Loaves of golden grain, orchards heavy with fruit — everything that connotes mature and perfect ripeness is appropriate for this…

JESSICA: Lughdnasadh, or Lammas, on August 1st or 2nd, is the first harvest of the year. “Lunansa,” is Irish Gaelic for “August.” Lughnasadh/Lammas arrives, bringing with it the first fruits of the planting season and the promise of more to come. Lugh-of-the-Long-Hand surrenders his life for the nurturing and sustenance of the community. His “sacrifice” ensures the abundance of the crops which feed us all. Though now he dies, as the energy of the sun wanes, he will be reborn and will rise up again, like the crops which he represents. …