Archive for the ‘The Honey House Journal’ Category

I just finished “Drood” by Dan Simmons. I’ve read half a dozen other books by Simmons. My all time favorites are still “Illium” and “Olympos”….so entertaining and informative. Simmons likes to tie in other great literature with his stories. My favorite runs you through the Trojan War of “The Iliad” in a science fiction treatment that dazzles and delights.

Mr. Simmons is a gifted author who obviously loves to read, and he likes trying his hand at varying styles. In “Drood” he weaves his tale around the last few years of Charles Dickens’ life and presents “Wilkie” Collins, a Dickens friend and fellow writer as his narrator-villain.
He pretty much proves he can out-Dickens Dickens himself, as Wilkie Collins wanted to do. Unfortunately for me, I am not a Dickens fan, nor do I care for Victorian horror-melodrama. So this effort fell flat for me. But I’m not giving up on Mr. Simmons—”Black Hills” is my next fiction!

Has anyone in the USA totally missed the antics of the insane Fred Phelps, who leads his “church” of family and married-in members (he had eleven kids) to harass gays and lesbians with “God Hates Fags” signs at every possible event? And recently, he has taken to haunting military funerals and contends that American deaths on the battle field are God’s punishment for America not killing off homosexuality.

Odd take on war, is it not? After all, one could scarcely find a more homophobic and reactive population than the one in Afghanistan—and yet THEY suffer combat deaths as well. Phelps would say God hates Muslims, one supposes. In fact, Phelps would want you to know, God hates YOU and everyone else who is NOT a member of his church.

The man and his “church” are obnoxious and offensive in the extreme. And a dead Marine’s family is suing for emotional distress. They won, but a higher court threw out the award and declared the signs reading “Thank God for IEDs” and “God hates the USA; Thank God for 9-11″ are hyperbolic and protected speech. Now it goes to the Supreme Court. Phelps sent all his children to law school, one supposes he knew that sooner or later he would need the legal aid.

I feel that barging into funeral processions surely must violate something! Why is such obvious hate speech not illegal? It is a mystery to me. But I am sure with so many legal eagles in the family, he receives good advice on just how far to go in his hyperbole. They can thank their “God” for 9-11 and IEDs, for instance, but never advocate actual violence against the US government.

I fear that Phelps will win his case; after all, nothing he does threatens American corporations—the only “entities” this current crop of Supremely Asinine judges seem intent upon protecting. All the same, light a candle that some hook to hang Phelp’s legal head upon might be found!

Yeah, you read that rightly. But I am still not believing it.

What do you have in them breasts, Lady? Acid? No, just milk? I think the guard is a wussy. Honestly, breast milk made the big guard go “Waaaaaah”??!

Ok, better late than never, right? I got a LOT of books for Yule, books were the bulk of my holiday gifts. So, I was very busy reading. I swear, every year, to do a once a month listing of what I have read. I always forget. And I am sure I HAVE forgotten something that I read since January 1st; but here is what I do remember. And the rudest, roughest book reviews EVAH.

I am still reading my birthday gift, the massive “Red Book” of Carl Jung—formally titled “Liber Novus.”

Also still reading Hutton’s “Stations of the Sun”.

I always enjoy Hutton’s thorough debunking of bullshit! That is why I read it so slowly, to savor it when the burning stupid starts leaking in the edges of my life!

And in between other books, a book by Eric Blehm called
“The Only Thing Worth Dying For”
about how “Eleven Green Berets Forged a New Afghanistan”(subtitle) and the other subtitle should have been “And How George Frakking Bush Fucked THAT Up By Taking Off to Iraq With the Rest of the Army.” I am enjoying the rather journalistic writing style even tho’ events in the book make me grind my teeth.

But I took a mad fiction break with a couple exceptions:

I finished the gruelingly horrid Mythago Wood series by Robert Holdstock that began immediately after Yule, in January this meant:

“Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn”

“Avilion”

They sucked, ok? Holdstock sucks, even when dead. I don’t know how he won fantasy prizes cause he SUCKS.
He starts all these threads and teases the hell out of the reader and NEVER wraps the fricking questions up. He drops characters (poorly developed at that) into black holes after making it seem that they will pop back up in the next installment. I hope there is some kind of writer’s hell where his own characters thought forms can torture him for eternity!

But then I got on to other gifts. I got Dan Simmons books to read:

“Illium” — the long sought first in a set of two, absolutely delightful novel, science, literature, history and marvelous characters. Then I re-read the second book which I had long owned and been mystified by until I finally got it’s other half! That one is “Olympos” and it was again quite awesome and this time, comprehensible!

Inspired by that experience, I got a four book series by Simmons:

“Hyperion”
“The Fall of Hyperion”
“Endymion”
“The Rise of Endymion”

I also enjoyed these greatly. I think he finished this one a wee bit more sloppily than the first two-book set. But still, very well done and an enjoyable romp thru a future of artificial intelligences trying to take over or destroy mankind in a way completely different than say the Battlestar Galactica story-line.

Then, because I really HAVE to get back to work, I began reading a trio of books by David Rankine and Sorita d’Este. I finished the first,

“Practical Elemental Magick”

It is a touch more fussily ceremonial than my usual practice, but I AM getting a bit more tight-assed in magic at my age than I used to be, so it works for me. I think there was a it of rush at the end—not sure why. Looking at the other books I have obtained, I wonder if a set length is their goal—and so they hit a page count and hustle to shove in the last vital bits?

I could totally skip their “hymns” to various assigned deities to the Elements. They did a good job explaining their attributions (Hera to Earth, for instance), but somehow it still feels forced to me. I find assigning deities to the Elements a bit odd in concept anyway, though, so perhaps that is just me.

I am now continuing to work thru “Practical Planetary Magick.” and their slim book “Practical Qabalah Magick” is next. They have a ton of books out there; apparently being Brit powerhouses of magical how to; it makes me wonder just how expert at EVERYthing one can be? For all I know, “Avalonia” is the Brit version of Llewellyn. But it doesn’t seem quite so watered down.

There is a bit of fluffy seeming “You can triumph over all these negative aspects by working the positive ones….” preaching, but I don’t know if that is Llewellyn-styled “Yes, we witchy wiccans are perfectly SAFE lovey-dovey sorts” bullshit, or if it stems from a Theosophist “Great Work” mentality. In any case, it grinds a bit on on couple nerves. You can’t tell me on one page how to create an elemental servitor to use for purposes “Good or Ill” and turn on your heel to tell me how to triumph over “negatives” like anger or egoism without tripping over your tongue. Or so it seems to me. As above, so below, right? Sun AND shadow, damn it!!

But it is keeping me occupied. I will have plenty of mad-priestess games to occupy me for the next couple months of experimentation.

I am too sore from last week’s hiking and the weekend yard work to be ambitious about much in terms of physical duties today. So, I am catching up on apparently rampant stupidity out there in the world. At the current rate or idiocy, we will need to light candles, not for magic purposes, but simply to find our way in the new Dark Ages! Hat-tips to the Bedazzler and Sonic at the Pagan/Wiccan message boards for some of these jaw-dropping bits of nutcake-ness.
Examples follow:

The Handmaiden’s Tale begins in Utah. The morons in the State House there have decided to criminalize having a miscarriage, so see to it you don’t fall down any stairs. Or maybe just keep it super secret if you become pregnant—don’t tell a soul! Cause heavens forfend if Mother Nature should spontaneously abort that fetus, as She does about half to two-thirds of the time; the right to lifers want you in jail for your uterine incompetence! You WISHED (witched?) that fetus to death, didn’t you?

This kind of lunacy would strike me as more heart-felt if any of these asshats gave a tinker’s damn about children already living and breathing on planet—-why not criminalize those who deny poor children health care, for instance?

And hey, public education delivers nothing but a class trip in grade 12, right? Again, Utah, really? They want to graduate you in 11th grade in Utah to shave money off the education budget. If I was faced with such a dire choice, I’d take kindergarten off the list, not senior year. But oh, that IS when students learn pesky things like their legal rights under the Bill of Rights, isn’t it? Yeah, dumb ‘em down so they make better church-going corporate clones. Dark ages, folks, devolution revolution!

The “party of Lincoln” wants naught to do with him? Say what? And burn those “Teddy” bears in effigy, too, because Republican Prez Theodore Roosevelt was guilty of “progressivism” ! Come on, you Grand Old Poops, those are the only contributions you have to polite American Society! But Glen-brain-dead Beck is haranguing his audiences about how they don’t represent what the GOP is all about. Well, no shit, Glen—it is now the Grand Oil Party, the Great Oligarch Patriarchs, the Gray Old Poofters (closeted, of course), any number of things that Lincoln and Roosevelt would not recognize at all!

And if you needed more proof that the ideals of the Medieval Era are returning to common conversation, look no further than the war crime trial against murderous Serbian Karadzic! His actions were “just and holy” because you know, the 21st century is just ripe for a new Crusade against those Islamic sorts, right?

Has everyone on the freaking planet gone nuts? Somehow, I just cannot see Jesus launching a war against another monotheistic faith that counts him as a major prophet; but hey, I am a damned and accursed pagan, what the fuck do I know? About twelve percent of world-wide Christians are crazy fundamental Dominionist murderous sorts; and about the same percentage of Muslims belong to hateful jihad-mad sects of Islam. Why can’t we round JUST those members of the respective faiths up and toss ‘em in a ring. I am pretty sure the rest of us, even we benighted pagans, could get along just fine after that!

But then, the bumper sticker seen this week defies that bit of common sense, I guess. It said “Liberate Constantinople!” I said, “Say what??” The reply was that Constantinople, once Byzantium and head of the Eastern half of the Roman Empire, had been under the ‘vile’ domination of the Turks for too long—time to return the city to it’s “Christian” beginnings.

Saaaay??? Has someone been burning history books again when I was not watching? Cause, damn, people—may I very gently remind you that the “Christian Era” is only 2010 years old and before the Roman Emperor Constantine decided to make it a new Roman capital it was a Greek city—Byzantium. And pagan. Not Christian at all. The star and the crescent were favored symbols of the city and they were said to be sacred to Hekate, the favorite deity of the city for her aid defending them against Alexander the Great’s similarly conquest minded father–Philip of Macedon.

So hey, yeah. Liberate Istanbul/Constantinople/Byzantium. Let’s take it back to it’s Hellenic (and pre-hellenic) paganism, shall we?

Honestly, evolve already. Or at least turn OFF the brain-lights so we will KNOW that nobody is at home. But hey, we have the final word from would-be-beauty-queen Lauren Ashley. This twatchen gives blondes a bad name; she thinks that the Bible is very clear and gays need to be put to death! As a friend said, she might want to duck a few flying stones herself; after all, it ain’t exactly kosher to be shaking your ta-tas in swimsuits in public either.

I just love Cafeteria Christians (yes, roasted with a side of sweet potato fries), don’t you? They cherry-pick favorite bits of murderous mayhem for holy reasons and never, ever examine their own “sinful” ways in the Gospel light. Oh, wait, there goes my Hellenic paganism bit again….that whole “examined life” was a Greek ideal, wasn’t it? Silly me, it’s all good if you are a blonde bombshell Christian with a big mouth and tiny brain.
Arete and hubris are lost concepts on those types…..I say hubris and hypocrisy, she says righteousness. Uh-huh, keep talking, Lauren—Jesus isn’t the only one listening.

Considering the views on women and their shapes, I have been on a rantage mode for a while now about defining women only by their body mass index and no other criteria. This bit, stolen from a Princessy friend puts it far better than I could ever do:

Recently, in a large city in Australia ,
a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman appeared in the window of a gym.
It said, “This summer,
do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?”

A middle-aged woman,
whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster,
responded publicly to the question
posed by the gym.

To Whom It May Concern,
Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans.)
They have an active sex life,
get pregnant and have adorable baby whales.
They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with shrimp.
They play and swim in the seas,
seeing wonderful places like Patagonia ,
the Bering Sea
and the coral reefs of Polynesia .
Whales are wonderful singers
and have even recorded CDs.
They are incredible creatures
and virtually have no predators
other than humans.
They are loved, protected and admired
by almost everyone in the world.

Mermaids don’t exist.
If they did exist,
they would be lining up outside the offices
of Argentinean psychoanalysts
due to identity crisis. Fish or human?
They don’t have a sex life
because they kill men who get close to them, not to mention how could they have sex?
Just look at them … where is IT?
Therefore, they don’t have kids either.
Not to mention,
who wants to get close to a girl who smells
like a fish store?

The choice is perfectly clear to me:
I want to be a whale.

Sometimes I don’t play well with others. I get these bitchy modes from time to time where I just think I should go lock myself in the Honey House and stay away from humans altogether.

A lot of these times happen when people use the internet (as they DO) to bitch about various aspects of life. I mean, hey, that is what I am doing right here, isn’t it? But now and then, I just want an icon of me in dominatrix gear to use in response to some of the bitching. Why?

Well, it is a consideration of effect, in a sense. Bitching and venting is healthy a lot of the time. But not always.
If bitching is ALL one does, if no attempt is made to change a situation or even analyze exactly what is wrong in a situation, bitching is pointless. Especially if the bitcher smiles along as they go in the actual problem setting while spilling venom everywhere else.

It is the bitching people do when they are NOT attempting change that makes me gets me reaching for verbal whips. Someone who complains endlessly about the parental suggestion of jobs, because the parents are footing the bills. While said dependent “revolts” because that is not their “dream” job. I doubt the parents are working their dream job to pay adult child’s bills, either. Or someone complaining over making a wedding cake for a disliked bride. Well, then why the fuck did you consent to do it; don’t you have the balls to say NO, you worm? (See, that leather-clad bitch WILL have her say?)

I am sick of passive-aggressive society. I want to bitch-slap every person in reach when they complain about things they are CONSENTING to by their actions.

Example from my own life now. I have an old 1966 Ranchero. It runs, it is our hobby car—MY hobby car. It needs a new exhaust system and is uninsured presently, and undriven, therefore. My dear hard-working husband got a big overtime check this week. What to spend the bonus upon, right? He announced we should insure and repair the Ranchero.

I immediately got bitchy feeling, but wasn’t sure why. I had a vet bill to pay, my vacuum cleaner died, and my favorite boots need re-heeled, and I needed new shoes for walking and running. But I couldn’t do it all, could I? So I was stressing and getting snappy and bitchy.

Finally, it hit me….this trying to make everyone happy was making me unhappy and when I am unhappy, but Gods, NObody around me is going to be happy for long. I called the husband and reminded him the Ranchero was MINE and I didn’t feel like pouring cash into a hobby (defined as WHEN and WHAT I feel like doing item) vehicle when there were things I NEEDED. And that would be what determined how the money was spent.

Voila. Problem solved. I didn’t bitch online about his wanting to fix a vanity car. I opened my mouth and said “No.” I have a new vacuum cleaner and new shoes. We have money for a two day anniversary getaway and I paid the veterinarian. It requires analyzing the problem and finding the best solution with NEEDS ahead of WANTS. It requires putting up with pouty faces and insisting on what WORKS. It requires more than bitching and not accepting what you yourself do to facilitate bullshit.

Kick your own ass first! And if real change isn’t what you really want? Shut the fuck up.
.

The Earthbound Misfit scoops me again on TSA Bullshit.

But I MUST tell you to go read the story anyhow. Apparently, a disabled boy in leg braces must walk thru the metal detector WITHOUT necessary leg braces to prove he is not a terrorist.

This is why I don’t fly. I’d be arrested, maced, tased, beaten. But some TSA asshat would have one of those removed leg braces up his ass so far his tonsils would protrude through his front teeth.

The so-called “officer” (is that short for officious?) doesn’t need retrained; he needs to be FIRED. Petty little fascist piggery like this should be rewarded with joblessness! A lot of BETTER employees are sure paycheck-less; why should an asshat like this still get paid?

And the stupidest part of all, in my unfucking humble opinion? That the TSA responded that what SHOULD have happened was the parents should have been asked to take the boy to a private place where he could be “swabbed for explosives residue”!? Excuse me? So the presumption of the TSA for disabled folks is that they OBVIOUSLY need swabbed for explosives? Cause, holy crap, they don’t NEED wheelchairs, crutches, and leg braces—-those are most likely just props for terrorists?

Cause yeah, deciding a cop and his wife would wire their kid to explode, yeah….that makes perfect sense to me. In the Bush-Cheney alternate universe of Fear Flagellation, perhaps. Could someone retrain more than just this one dumb ass? Please?

Happy Chinese New Year – Go Get “Em Tiger!
Happy Lupercalia!
Happy New Moon!
Happy Valentine’s Day!

The Winter Games have not yet begun. But a competitor is dead….a luger died today in a practice run: “Nodar Kumaritashvili lost control of his sled during training, went over the track wall and struck an unpadded steel pole near the finish line…”

Interestingly, there has been a lot of noise and worry about this set of games in beautiful British Columbia, north of me; but I had no plans to watch the games. I was already turned off my Canada acting all “Homeland Security” about any possibly negative commentary even by their own citizens. And apparently, the track had created worry in competing nations, who were denied access to determine the safety of the run before hand: “The danger of the Whistler track has been talked about for months — particularly after several nations, including the U.S., were upset over restrictions regarding access to the facility by nations other than Canada, with some noting it could lead to a safety issue.” So, they shut down questions, and now a young man is dead. Have they learned from this tragedy?

Apparently not, for even while discussing the death with the press; the International Olympic Committee’s spokesman didn’t seem to think this merited investigation: “An investigation into the crash started quickly, although Rogge said this was not the time to talk about it.” Really? When should it be investigated Mr. Rogge? After more sledders die? Several have been injured in practice. Or maybe only if a Canadian died, not some unfortunate bastard from Georgia, in the former Soviet Union?

I have long been plagued with doubts as to the real value of the modern Olympic Games. It has become very political on occasion, and the emphasis on technical speed enhancements in many sports and a general lack of respect for real physical virtuosity that is thereby entailed has lessened my one time enthusiasm. And top if off with seeing little of the world’s competitors on televised bits….in America, I generally find my viewing of events curtailed to the Brits, Americans, and a few Russians and Germans….it bores me. It used to be a showcase of the WORLD. But now, I am to quietly watch the “First World” nations posturing for each other? I’ll pass, thank you.

More and more, I find it all a giant waste of money in a world where children starve and the working class is being stomped out of existence. The Games no longer inspires hope and courage and display the prerogatives of the rich and entitled: competitors are all sponsored by the corporations that can’t be bothered to pay a living wage to most of the employees. Had the Olympics been in Georgia and a Canadian had died, I am certain that track and the competition thereon would already be a dead issue, but unfortunately, the only thing dead right now is Nodar Kumaritashvili.

Perhaps a quote from an Australian competitor puts it best: ““To what extent are we just little lemmings that they just throw down a track and we’re crash-test dummies? I mean, this is our lives.””