Sign of faith...

A Wisconsin witch is once again leading the fight for freedom of religion in the US. Circle Sanctuary's high piestess, Selena Fox met by phone with a Veterans Administration official on March 2 to confirm the Sanctuary's application for the Wiccan pentangle to be included with more than 30 other such emblems allowed on gravestones and makers in veterans cemeteries.

She has taken up the fight in support of family members of deceased National Guard soldier Patrick Stewart of Nevada who died with three other soldiers in September when their Chinook helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade while returning to their base for refueling in Afghanistan. His dog tags, which his widow Roberta now wears around her neck, carry the word Wiccan on them to identify his religious beliefs.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and its National Cemetery Administration prohibit any graphics on government-furnished headstones or markers other than those they have approved as "emblems of belief." From the Christian cross to the Buddhist wheel of righteousness, certain symbols are permitted including a symbol for atheists but not the pentangle - a five-pointed star facing upward, surrounded by a circle.

A Canadian boy has won the right for Sikhs to carry knives at school. Canada's Supreme Court gave the green light yesterday for the kirpan, a small knife of religious significance to Sikhs, to be carried in public schools. The case originated in Montreal's Marguerite-Bourgeoys school board in 2001 and involved Gurbaj Singh Multani. Now 17, Multani says he is not bitter over the five-year legal dispute launched when he accidentally dropped his kirpan while playing at recess.

"People are getting more interested in our religion, ignorance is going away because of this case," he told a news conference.

Sikh men wear the kirpan as a symbol of baptism. Sikhism, the world's fifth largest religion, was started in the 16th Century by Guru Nanak, a religious teacher. There are 25 million Sikhs in the world.

God, guns and gays...

Last night the Wisconsin State Assembly passed the constitutional ban on civil unions and marriage ammendment, sending it to the November 7th statewide election.

Hat tip to: State Rep. Gregg Underheim, R-Oshkosh, who sided with Democrats in opposition to the amendment. He questioned the motives of Republican legislators and stressed the importance of protecting all citizens under the constitution.

“What we’re doing today will change the nature of the constitution we have written,” he says. “This moves us from protecting people from their government to disenfranchising people.”

Fair Wisconsin is campaigning to defeat the ban. In the next ten days, they will hold kick-off trainings in every region of Wisconsin to introduce the campaign:

Milwaukee - Thursday, March 2
http://eqfed.org/aw/events/milw1/details.tcl

Fox Valley - Monday, March 6
http://eqfed.org/aw/events/fairfoxvalley/details.tcl

Central Wisconsin - Tuesday, March 7 http://eqfed.org/aw/events/fairwausau/details.tcl

La Crosse - Wednesday, March 8 http://eqfed.org/aw/events/fairlacrosse/details.tcl

Eau Claire - Thursday, March 9
http://eqfed.org/aw/events/faireauclaire/details.tcl

Superior - Friday, March 10
http://eqfed.org/aw/events/fairsuperior/details.tcl

Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond Of Each Other
By Willie Nelson

There's many a strange impulse out on the plains of West Texas;
There's many a young boy who feels things he don't comprehend.
Well small town don't like it when somebody falls between sexes,
No, small town don't like it when a cowboy has feelings for men.

Well I believe in my soul that inside every man there's a feminine,
And inside every lady there's a deep manly voice loud and clear.
Well, a cowboy may brag about things that he does with his women,
But the ones who brag loudest are the ones that are most likely queer.

Cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other
What did you think those saddles and boots was about?
There's many a cowboy who don't understand the way that he feels towards his brother,
Inside every cowboy there's a lady who'd love to slip out.

Ten men for each woman was the rule way back when on the prairie,
And somehow those cowboys must have kept themselves warm late at night.
Cowboys are famous for getting riled up about fairies,
But I'll tell you the reason a big strong man gets so uptight:

Cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other
That's why they wear leather, and Levi's and belts buckled tight.
There's many a cowboy who don't understand the way that he feels towards his brother;
There's many a cowboy who's more like a lady at night.

Well there's always somebody who says what the others just whisper,
And mostly that someone's the first one to get shot down dead:
When you talk to a cowboy don't treat him like he was a sister
Don't mess with the lady that's sleepin' in each cowboy's head.

Cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other
Even though they take speed and drive pickups and shoot their big guns;
There's many a cowboy who don't understand the way that he feels towards his brother;
There's many a cowboy who keeps quiet about things he's done.

(c) 1981/2006 --- Ned Sublette

Nothing but the flu and prohibition...

Today is the birthday of Victor Louis Berger, a Jewish American US politician and a founding member of the Socialist Party of America. In 1919 he was convicted of violating the Espionage Act of 1917, a law passed after our entry into WWI which made it a crime for a person oppose the war. The legislation was passed at the urging of then United States President Woodrow Wilson, who feared any widespread dissent in time of war constituted a real threat to an American victory. It was punishable by a $USD 10,000 fine and 20 years in jail.

Berger and his parents immigrated to the United States from Austria-Hungary in 1878, settling near Bridgeport, CT. He moved to Milwaukee in 1881, where he was a schoolteacher and newspaper editor, publishing and editing a number of different papers, including the German language Wisconsin Vorwaerts (Forward) (1892-1911), the Social-Democratic Herald (1901-1913), and the Milwaukee Leader (1911-1929). His papers were tied to the socialist movement and organized labor through the Milwaukee Federated Trades Council.

"You got nothing out of the war except the flu and prohibition," Berger told readers after the US entered the war.

His continued opposition made him a target. In February 1918 he and four other Socialists were indicted for insubordination and disloyalty under the Espionage Act. In spite of his being under indictment the people of Milwaukee elected Berger to the House of Representatives. When Berger arrived in Washington to claim his seat, Congress formed a special committee to determine whether a convicted felon and war opponent should be seated as a member of Congress. On November 10, 1919 they concluded that he should not, and declared the seat vacant. Wisconsin promptly held a special election to fill the vacant seat, and on December 19, 1919 elected Berger a second time; the House again refused to seat him.

The trial began on December 9 of that year, and on February 20, 1919, Berger was sentenced to 20 years' hard labor in Leavenworth Prison by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. The conviction was appealed and ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court on a technicality. His twice elected seat in Congress remained vacant until 1921, when Republican William H. Stafford claimed the seat after defeating Berger in the 1920 general election.

Berger returned to defeat Stafford in 1922 and was reelected in 1924 and 1926. He dealt with Constitutional changes, a proposed elderly pension, unemployment insurance, and public housing. He also supported the recognition of the Soviet Union and the revision of the Versailles Treaty. After his defeat by Stafford in 1928, he returned to Milwaukee and resumed his career as a newspaper editor until his death caused by a traffic accident.

Thanks to Rick Kisséll and Wikipedia for inspiration and content.

War-morphing

I had to take a look into the way back machine... Senate approves Iraq war resolution, trying to find out when it was that Congress approved an endless "War on Terror." I can't seem to find out when it took place as there is no mention of anything like that back in 2002. How hard can that be?

Digging back through the archives of Bateman365, the work of an artist who is making an animated film a day for a year, I find that he has the fully animated truth - Day009: Actual Excerpts From The President's Speech of 2/6/03.

On May 1, 2003 the President declared Victory in Iraq, Mission Accomplished! ...and changed the name of the game to a War on Terror.