Loving Commisioner Ramsey-Calling All Pagans

Philadelphia has been rocked again by the killing of another police officer. This time it was Sgt Stephen Liczbinski, after a bank robbery in Port Richmond. The Seargeant never stood a chance, as the suspect hopped out of a van and started shooting with an SKS. Sadness has again enveloped the City.

Today, there was a press conference about the banning of assault rifles within the city of Philadelphia, even though the Chinese made SKS is not techinally an assault rifle. New Commissioner Ramsey made a few fans today, including this feathery duck, with his response.

Officials acknowledged the federal assault weapons ban would not have included the gun that killed Liczbinski, as it came to the U.S. in 1992.

But Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey bristled when told that some gun-rights organizations dispute whether the SKS rifle qualifies as an assault weapon.

The gun inflicts wounds so devastating that it should be considered one, Ramsey said angrily.

"Then add it to the frickin' list!" he said to sustained applause from officials and other police officers at the news conference.

The funeral is tomorrow, and as a pagan, I am looking for a little something I can do at my place of work to show respect. So, if there is a candle I can light, something I can burn or a little chant I can do at Noon, please let me know, preferably before 8 AM since thats when I hustle off to work.

Thursday Thirteen #53-The Faerie Con One

Thirteen Artists & Authors at Faerie Con 2007 Faerie Con 2007 is coming to Philadelphia this weekend. Since I am all wrapped up in a bunch of things this weekend, I will not be able to get down there. That, or I am a chicken when it comes to sharing the idea that I like Faeries. Either way, I won't be able to get there, but there will be plenty of very talented artists. Here are 13 that will be there. 1. Brian and Wendy Froud. They are apparently the guests of honor. Brian Froud Wendy Froud 2.Holly Black. She is not actually an artist, but an author, best known for the Spiderwick Chronicles, which apparently is being turned into a movie. 3.Barbara Moore is an author and certified Tarot Card Reader, including the beautifully drawn book Mystic Faerie Tarot. I think one of the reasons Tarot Cards intrigue me is because they are just gorgeous. 4.Jessica Beckett-Griffith is a Faerie artist who allows her drawings to show her influences in the Mayan, Hindu and Greek traditions. 5.Jacqueline Collen Tarroly 6.J.Cosentino of a Time of the Faeries. His artwork is actually pictures, not drawings and it is knock your socks off beautiful. 7.Kinuko Craft-An artist that uses her images to tell a story as opposed to just being visually stunning. 8.Jessica Galbreath, painter of myth, magik and enchantment. 9.Ted Naismith, who is best known for his illustrations of some J.R. Tolkien books. 10.Linda Ravenscroft is the artist/illustrator of the Mystic Faerie Tarot books written by Barbara Moore (who I mentioned earlier). 11.Helen Nelson Reed-an artist that works in Watercolors, which just has to be magnificent to see in person. 12.Josephine Wall, who seems to go into to things I love, faeries and water. 13.Jen Delyth, a celtic illustrator who focuses alot of her works on the magik of nature. So there you go, now you know what we both will be missing, which now that I researched it more, kinda really sucks. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

I'm Telling Ya, they are Magic!!

If you remember back, oh 2 or 3 months ago now, I expressed my like and wonder for Dragonflys in a Thursday Thirteen. I am especially a believer in Number 5.

5.Yet Native Americans grasped their spiritual importance. It is said in some Native American beliefs that dragonflies are a symbol of renewal after a time of great hardship.

Though, I am a believer in reincarnation and souls coming back over and over again and finding us in little ways when we are blue, or need luck, or just need a distraction from how life is.

Also, a few weeks back I told ya to go over and visit Ms Congeniality because she was going through a rough spot with one of her daughters friends. Well, I swear, the dragonflies came through, and her story is proof positive.

So, even if you are not a true believer like me, even if you think reincarnation is what you do when you throw up a Carnation Instant Breakfast, read the story. It will make you smile, or cry or both.

More Silly Quizzes

Or maybe not so silly, since this first one is semi accurate about the way I have been feeling in life recently. So its not a big old surprise.

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	5.2
Mind:	5.6
Body:	4.9
Spirit:	5.2
Friends/Family:	5.2
Love:	7.3
Finance:	3.8
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

I got this one from Soliloquoy, a neat blog I added to my reader.

Your Score: Orpheus

33% Extroversion, 66% Intuition, 100% Emotiveness, 76% Perceptiveness

You are an artist, an aesthete, a sensitive, and someone who has never really let go of that childlike innocence. To you, all of life has a sense of wonder in it, and the story of Orpheus was written about someone just like you.



When the Argo passed the island of the Sirens, Orpheus played a song more beautiful than the Sirens to prevent the crew from becoming enticed. When his wife died, he ventured into the underworld to charm Hades but, in his naivete, he looked back becoming trapped there.



You can capture your unique world view and relate it to others with the skill of a master storyteller. Your sensitivity and creativity make you a treasure to the human race, but your thin-skinned nature and innocence can cause you a lot of disenchantment and pain. What's doubly unfortunate is that, if you try to lose those traits, you never will, and everyone will be able to tell that you're putting up an artificial shell to prevent yourself from being hurt.



Famous people like you: Hemingway, Shakespeare, Mr. Rogers, Melville, Nick Tosches

Stay clear of: Icarus, Hermes, Atlas

Link: The Greek Mythology Personality Test written by Aleph_Nine on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

And Starr had this one. I am disappointed in the fact that her and I are tied and that we are both not awful enough.

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	High

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Thursday Thirteen #39- The God and Goddess One

ThirteenGods and Goddesses of Egypt As I mentioned earlier in the week, the family had a little educational sojourn to the Franklin Institute to see the King Tut Exhibit. One of the things I learned was the fact that the Egyptian royalty believed in spells and higher powers to protect them and also help there transportation to the next life. I think they even had a Book of Shadows. So, I figured I would give a little something something about 13 Gods and Goddesses of Egyptian Mythology. 1.Ahy-God and protector of Musicians and Music. Maybe I can credit him for the Ipod. 2.Amentet-The god and protector of the setting sun. She is also the greeter, like St Peter in Catholicsm, and guide of those who have just crossed over to the afterlife. 3.Anpu-Originally the God of cemetaries, he was also thought to be the son of the Sun God, making him very powerful in the heirarchy. Later became the God of embalming and the guide to those of Northern Egypt when it came to death. 4. Atum-One of the nine deities of Egypt. He is believed to have been the physical creator of all things physically on the planet, through spitting or masturbation. I just wanted to find a way of working masturbation into a Thursday Thirteen. 5. Bastet-a cat goddess, she was the goddess of pregnant women and the patron for singing, music and dancing. I purchased a necklace with Bastet in her cat form, as a way of trying to change my own luck. Even if it looks a little girly. 6. Wadjet-The serpent mother and protector of all of Egypt. One of the key goddesses in Egyptian culture. Depicted usually as a cobra, her representation is the one you see on the royal headdress. 7.Duanmutef-One of the four gods that helped protect the entrails that were stored in those little gold canopys. Duanmutef was the protector of the stomach, which was removed during embalming. 8. Hapi-The god of the Nile itself. Always depicted as a fat man wearing blue or green mud, based on the belief that he was the creator of the Nile. As opposed to the Blue Man Group, who were the creators of raves as Broadway shows. 9. Hektet-Another goddess of fertility. She was depicted as frog, because of the creation of tadpoles every spring. She was a goddess scene often in the magical texts and her amulets were given to pregnant women to protect them during childbirth. 10. Eset-Known as Isis in english and greek, she was the goddess of love, magic, motherhood and children. She is one of the oldest known goddesses and also the one that remained the most unchanged from the time of her first mention. A goddess that was not only worshipped by Egyptians, but also Romans and Greeks. 11. Nebthet-The goddess of the mastery of Magic. She was said to be the protector and ruler of the open sands of Egypt. Known as the Lady of the House. Any time you give a woman that title, you know she is got some juice behind her. Its like calling a woman maam. 12. Re or Ra-The Sun God, the big kahuna, the head honcho of all the gods and goddesses. Another of the deity of 9, he controlled the Sun, which controlled everything else. Became for a brief time the top of a sole god hierarchy that was instituted by the King just before King Tut. This theology failed. 13. Shesmu-The god of sinners. Think of him as the Grim Reaper. It was his job to behead the sinners and make them pay for there trangressions under the order of Isis. Not exactly a shinny happy God. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

A new way to see pets?

I was all set to do a post about the amount of money spent on our animals in America, which even I think sometimes go to an excess, not on the money spent, but on the things we may buy for them. I was ready to say that cat spas are silly, that painting your dogs toe nails the same color that you favor is a bit much and that all the money spent on clothes and costumes for your furry friend could probably be put to better use someplace else.

Then, I did a search and the first article that Google presented was an opinion piece by Gary Bauer. Oh, that was a mistake on my part. Not double checking that it was the Christian Science Monitor, also a foe pa. But, its too late now and I am up in a lather.

Basically, at least in my view, he is tying the fact that we spend money on our animals to the fact that less people are having children in the United States.

Census data reveal that the proportion of childless women 15 to 44 years old reached an all-time high of 45 percent in 2004. Moreover, he National Center of Health Statistics confirms that the percentage of women who choose to be "child-free" has swelled 160 percent in a generation.

Both singles and couples without children are more likely to own pets and are significantly more likely to develop strong, even parental bonds with them. In San Francisco, pet owners – "pet guardians" according to city ordinance – outnumber children nearly 2 to 1.

Standard reasons for choosing pets over people include the rising costs of raising children, and careers and social standing taking precedence over family life

. From the Christian Science Monitor.

Now, tell me, what in the world does the fact that we have two cats have to do with the fact that I don't have children? Nothing. Pets and Children are not a mutual decision. We don't sit down and say "oh we have Lola and Bettina, so we can't have kids". No, right now we don't have kids because I personally am not ready to be a father and we are still not sure how healthy it would be for Mrs Duck to have kids. Mutually exclusive decisions!

Plus, the information he points to is very flawed, especially the 160% number talking about generational choices for children. He forgets the fact that people have different lives now, the woman in the family works and is sometimes the bread winner. We are not the baby boomer generation, thank the goddess, because I do not think that our economy would be able to handle it. So, good ol Gary thinks that the woman better be home barefoot and pregnant? Nothing wrong with that idea, if it is your choice, not what you think society wishes for you as a woman, or a man for that matter.

So, Gare, I am not going to be buying mini Eagles Jerseys for the girls. They will not be eating caviar anytime soon. But, I am insulted by the insinuation that the money that we spent when Kittie broke her leg and had to have it amputated was a waste of money. She had been my girl for 14 years and that last year and a half I got to have her around was worth more then ten times the money I spent. And, I would do it all over again if I could.

So, no Christian Science Monitor subscription for Christmas please.

Tarot's may or may not know me

You are The Lovers

Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse.

The Lovers represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made.

Originally, this card was called just LOVE. And that's actually more apt than "Lovers." Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can't understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that the you have or will come across a person, career, challenge or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Their is a part of me that is not surprised by this. I know the deep ticks and whistles deep inside me, because sometimes they make enough noise that I can hear. Its not addiction, its more a need to let go of the power sometimes. Of course, this is even weirder to see written down now. It could just be where my life is at present, because I did this quiz at another time and I was death. That did not strike me as good either.
As usual, Rhian gets me thinking.

Throwdown at the Supermarket

Sunday is the day we shop. Yes, i know that Saturday night or some night is probably a better day to go, but its tradition. So, we were off to Giant, yes faithful readers, that Giant and started on our list. First off, who knew that peaches would be so hard to find? Was their a freeze or some sort of peach boycott that I did not hear about?

So, in the soda aisle, we pass a nicely dressed African American woman. I could have sworn I heard her say something as we passed her. So I stopped and double checked. As, every customer passed her while she was picking up her Mountain Dew, she would say "Jesus can save you" At first, I thought it was just odd. Except, she did it to every customer that passed!

So, maam, Jesus can save all the jewish people who think that Jesus Christ was just a friendly well spoken guy? Jesus can save the people like me that believe in the power of the earth goddess? Jesus can save Mrs Duck, who has married a sinner, making herself a sinner too?

Possibly one of the rudest and shocking things I have experienced in my little haven that is the supermarket.

What Tarot are you?

I am not sure if this is good

You are The Devil

Materiality. Material Force. Material temptation; sometimes obsession

The Devil is often a great card for business success; hard work and ambition.

Perhaps the most misunderstood of all the major arcana, the Devil is not really "Satan" at all, but Pan the half-goat nature god and/or Dionysius. These are gods of pleasure and abandon, of wild behavior and unbridled desires. This is a card about ambitions; it is also synonymous with temptation and addiction. On the flip side, however, the card can be a warning to someone who is too restrained, someone who never allows themselves to get passionate or messy or wild - or ambitious. This, too, is a form of enslavement. As a person, the Devil can stand for a man of money or erotic power, aggressive, controlling, or just persuasive. This is not to say a bad man, but certainly a powerful man who is hard to resist. The important thing is to remember that any chain is freely worn. In most cases, you are enslaved only because you allow it.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.