RedHead Confetti

Here are a couple very good resources about the urban legends surrounding Hallowe'en. They're not propaganda, and so you won't get lurid tales of baby-eating and sex with Satan. You will get some good links, and a laugh at the silliness masquarading as truth that's often propagated by christian fundementalists this time of year. It's often considered to be the new year for many neo-pagans; I myself celebrate it as a new year. It's the end of all harvest, and the beginning of the deep winter. The earth sleeps, and we wait for the sun to warm us once more. When you're out, whether it's to a party, or Trick or Treating with your kids, please be careful. It's dark! I don't want anyone to get run over by a car. Don't listen to the scare-mongers and their "candy is all poison" or "witches will sacrficie your children". Just have fun! Halloween Error and Lies: or what Fundamentalist Christians don't want you to know abo...

Hallowe'en is coming, and it is my absolutely favourite holiday. I wrote this up a few years ago, as I was working my way through the Wheel of the Year, and wanted something that I could use to tell the story of Samhain to kids. It's pretty basic, and I left out the bloodier parts of the story. If you like faerie tales, then I encourage you to read the original. It's in Scots-English, and so the spelling is strange to our eyes. Any way you look at it, this week I'll write about Sa mhain, which is pronounced Sow-a n or Sow-a ne , not Sam-ha ne... and for the record, there is no god Sam Hain who w itches worship... but I'll get into that one later.  Enjoy!  Tam Lin: A story of Samhain This is a retelling of the Scotts song, the Ballad of Tam Lin . The best copy of the ballad I found was in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by F. J. Child. The original author of the ballad is unknown. The retelling is done here to tell the story of Samhain, ...

The letter I sent to Congress and the President, through Demand Progress , (an activist group dedicated to freedom of expression, and an actual open, free internet, rather than a corporate, sanitised one) : We, the undersigned, believe that we should truly own the things that we buy. When Americans purchase legitimate goods, they should be assured that the goods can be resold, given away, and used in any legal manner they see fit. The federal government should support and promote the ability of Americans to own and use these products, not just rent and license them. The government, and this administration, should support ownership rights for the following reasons: 1. Americans must have the right to buy a good, confident in the knowledge that they own it and may use it for any legal purpose. 2. Americans need to be free to buy and sell their legitimate goods in a robust and successful free market. 3. Goods manufactured overseas should not have more legal protection than America...

This past two weeks, or so, has been a whirlwind around my house. A good whirlwind, but definitely different than my normal "slowly sliding through life" kinda thing. Early in the morning Wednesday, October 10th, the doorbell rang. I hate doorbells, hate them with a passion! Why, you ask, they just tell you someone's at your door! Well, you know that thing babies do when you startle them? They jump and fling their arms out like they're falling. I have a really bad startle reflex when I'm surprised by things like doorbells. Haunted houses don't phase me, scary movies don't either... but for some reason loud, unexpected noises like doorbells startle the shit out of me! So, I jumped, and answered the door. It was a guy from the local baseball team for developmentally disabled people. Poor kid, his opening lines were, "You may have heard of me, I'm famous! I was in the paper!" I asked which one, and quickly said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I ...

Trigger Warning: Snark ahead. Lots and lots of it. In fact, this entire entry will be chock-full of all of your daily allowances of snarky, sarcastic wit for the next month. Oh, and it's about religion in America... so yeah, you've been warned! So, today Pew released their newest religion poll. It's amazing! It's New! It's Improved! We can hardly believe it! Yes, for the fourth, or fifth time this year, another poll has come out that tells us what we already know: One in Five Americans is religiously unaffiliated... Now, my husband sent me the CNN link this morning from work. The Slate link, I found myself, as I read news there, too. I was already familiar with the 20% number, because I distinctly remember reading this before-- not that long ago. Where? I can't remember, but I do remember the "1 in 5" and thinking, "huh, that many?" I want to explore that, though, just a little. What does unaffiliated mean, and why is it really such...

About a month ago, I found this article over at Alternet, " Is Prayer Selfish? " It made me think, and ponder, which is what I want articles to do-- I want to be challenged to think about things, perhaps in ways I have not before. It doesn't always work, of course, because some times, news is just news. But occasionally an article bounces around in my head for awhile, and germinates like a seed. This is one of those times. I saved the link, to my "Blog List"-- a document I keep on my desktop for interesting links or ideas, things that I'm thinking of writing about. I do this, because there is always so much going on in my head. I don't want to forget something that struck me as odd, or weird, or made me think, "huh, I need to explore that idea a little bit". Most of the time, to be completely frank, the articles make me think of something in a completely different direction-- they are my jumping off points. This one, is no different. I do...