Let's See You Sit Out All 1:36

They're Worried About a Few Protestors . . .

. . and this is going on right there in Crouch End?  This - exactly this - is what's wrong with the CofE!

My Nobunaga Fascination Again . . .

There is a taiga (year-long historical series) out on Japan Broadcasting Corporation called Go(u): Hime-tachi no Sengoku - I'm sure you've all been following it breathlessly. 

In any case, the early episodes include Oda Nobunaga, one of my . . . heroes(?) .  .  . sort of.  He did what needed to be done as he saw best, a man of action and strong will . . . and he had an eye for attractive young men. Most notably, his retainers included the three famously-attractive sons of the Mori clan - Ranmaru, Bomaru, and Rikimaru.  Ranmaru and Nobunaga were particularly close,  understood generally as lovers, their love for one another being much admired through much of Japan's history.  An appalling age difference to us, but no more so than the difference between a powerful husband and a young (teenaged) wife of the time in East and West - and, certainly, the relationship entailed more openness, genuine affection, and equality than comparable "boy-on-the-side" arrangements maintained by kings, cardinals and popes in the West.

So, where am I going?  Don't know, except that they finally chose someone pretty enough to be Ranmaru, and his brothers.

Here's Ranmaru

Here's Bomaru

Here's Rikimaru

Yet, there is something else.

I would not have considered this, and just am thinking of it now, but for the blogs of Elizabeth Kaeton and Susan Russell. 

It's nice that the love between Ranmaru and Nobunaga was genuine, and shared and based on a bit more than simply the kept-boy scenario, an acceptance, however limited, of homosexuality, but . . . Nobunaga was married.  Most of these daimyo who practiced shudo - a relationship of mature man and young man, often sexual - were married.  What about the wives?  Why should it not have been just the same for them?  It seems to me that, if establishing a legal heir is important - would it really matter biologically who the father is, if the legality of the father is established?  Wouldn't it, in the case of an exclusively homosexual daimyo, actually have made things easier? 

Even in a series like this, mostly concerned with the strong, resilient and noble women of the Sengoku Period, the wives are simply . . . obedient.  There was no similar arrangement for wives to have a romantic outlet where these marriages were simply for the purpose of establishing legitimate progeny.  Indeed, women were some of the strongest and most passionate figures in Japan's Warring States period, but . . . they simply are pretty ornaments in the usual stories. 

Some Closure

Yesterday, I held a small memorial, funeral for Miutu.  I made him a memorial marker, and, since there was no body for me to bury, I wrapped his food dish in a black cloth and buried it.  It was a lovely day, and I placed the "grave" in the shade of the crepe myrtles which bloom so beautifully in spring.

Ain't Nothin' You Can Do . . .

TATERS GONNA TATE

Coming to Grips

This was one of the things that has helped me to feel a little better in the days following the loss of my little big man. 

I haven't seen it in years. 

NOT APPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN OR FOR THE EASILY-OFFENDED but funny as hell.

Hell, Yes! Spock(2) is Gay!

Sorry. 

The event that brought it about is a true tragedy - the death of Jamey Rodemeyer (I told you those "It Gets Better" things wouldn't help everyone) - but others have written more clearly and eloquently about it. 

Perhaps, I should have done my own "It Gets Better" but I figured it would be rejected, because this is what I'd say:

Will it get better?  I don't know.  That's not important, because it gets bearable, and that's all anybody has.  That is because, once the bullying is gone - or, the overt, personal bullying - you'll have other worries.  Life is worry.  Life is challenge. 

It gets bearable.

And, here's why you shouldn't kill yourself;  I love you.  I don't know you, but I love you.  You're one of us, if for no other reason.  And, another reason, you will go on to have your own life and you will cease to care about what those morons think of you (and, if they're physically hurting you, press charges, then sue them and their parents - hell, the school too! - into oblivion), while they will tear themselves apart because of your sheer existence!  Look how much the conservatives spend on you, how much they obssess about you, how much they tie themselves up and expend mental, emotional and physical energy on you.  Your continuing to live will shorten their lives.  Bonus.  Finally, it might get better, it will get bearable, but it won't if you're not there.  You have to be present to win.  There's also a secret:  they bully you because they are afraid;  that's right, fearful animals.  Now, animals - especially frightened ones - can be dangerous, but we, the humans, have brains.  We cage animals or put them in their own environment.  Always work to sharpen your mind, your will, your ability to outmaneuver them, and, with your help, we'll get them all caged, and it will get better.  We need you for that, though.  And we need you to do more than concern yourself over Lady Gaga and a possible boyfriend - all fine personal concerns, don't misunderstand - but we need you to devote most of your energy to being smarter, faster, stronger-willed, and generally better than they. 

But, that aside, it brought Zachary Quinto BEHOLD!

to come out as gay.

Miutu is Gone

My little big fella. 

He'd been having diarrhea, but, with meds, seemed to be improving.  This past weekend, his stomach took on an odd, bulging pendulousness, little tufts of fur fell out, his eyes were dull, appetite poor, and he seemed to be breathing heavily.

Monday, I took him back.  It was decided to do an x-ray, to see about a possible blockage.

The x-ray showed a mass in his belly.  The vet was very kind, not giving me any false hope.  I say it was kind because I clung to the hope of his having swallowed something he shouldn't - I was always having to keep plastic bags away from my big ol' tiger.  We discussed it.  If it was benign, or did turn out to be a foreign object, she'd remove it - of course - and we'd just nurse him back.  If not, then it was a choice of returning him to consciousness after the surgery to face either euthanasia or several weeks of pain followed by death.  I said that I would rather he just went quietly on the table, if that were the case.

The call came around 6 pm.  Lymphoma has devoured every lobe of his liver, and had spread to pretty much every other vital organ.  She had done as I asked.  She was shy about the subject of the bill when I brought it up - it was a whopper, as I knew it would be - but I told her I did not resent it.  There are no government funds to prop up veterinary hospitals in such cases, no endowments.  She did the work, did all she could.  I can do without and struggle as best I can to pay it off.  I asked her to take care of the remains.  I don't know any pet crematories in the area, and couldn't afford it, anyway.  I knew I couldn't take seeing him like that.  He had, she reminded me, 9 excellent years of love and devotion - and good eating - and was not in pain when the cancer was found.  She's a very kind lady, our vet.

There's a 19 lb hole in my life.  A sweet boy, all cuddles and chainsaw purrs.  Even in fear, he might growl but never scratched or bit.  Katzie, at first excited about having me to himself, has been looking from room to room, and, finally, following and rubbing on me at all times.  He looked distinctly depressed as I left for work. 

Oh, I'll get another.  I understand those people who keep a house full of cats, now.  I would, if I could care for all of them.  It's gonna be awhile, though.  I may be working poor, but I can offer love and self-sacrifice, and a lot of cats need good owners.

May he have a favorable rebirth.

Truth is . . .

. . not telling someone they're a completely hopeless, famously-evil idiot may be polite, but it's hardly an act of Christian charity, or charity at all, as it encourages the hopeless, famously-evil idiot to continue his idiocy as if it were a viable worldview and subjects the rest of us to his blundering life-choices and their repercussions, all so someone can feel that they were one of the good guys maintaining "polite discourse." 

My Take On the 53%; Why Do I Do This To Myself?

Still, the watchman who doesn't give the warning, and all:

Here's what the 53% is - or thinks it is.

And, this is my response - somewhat polished and edited - as posted at Counterlight's Peculiars:



What I see of the 53% can only be termed "Uncle Toms." They disgustedly tell you about - for example in the article - working three jobs to pay a mortgage and take care of kids.




So . . . tell me again why you would support Wall Street laissez-faire capitalism? It did this to you, and you want to feed it?!





I think, in the end, they see their own reflection in Occupy Wall Street - they believe it's a group of people who, having suffered and gone without, have neither grown nor learned and want to take from them in the zero-sum game that is capitalism. Perhaps this spurious 53% really believe they have the opportunity to "succeed" by their fruitless labor - the lie of the American Dream, manufactured by the wealthy to keep the rest working to make them more wealth.



In any case, they don't understand that OWS and those who support it want us all to have a decent, comfortable life. It's not Monty Python's Dennis Moore redistributing the wealth by fiat - they . . . we . . .  want everyone to be well-off and there's no possible reason they shouldn't be. The cry of "I'm not supporting a bunch of lazy bums!" is self-defeating, because then, you are feeding that same predator which you have to which threatens the basics of your own life. You're just paying the Danegeld.  I don't deny the reality of "lazy bums," but that's not the majority of humans, and the real "lazy bums" are more often the wealthy who've found the way to make others work for them, or low-level grifters who will still get theirs. They won't be hurt in the slightest by constricting social welfare, because they live off of rather than in the society.



It's all so senseless and easily-overcome and I despair that humankind can go any farther with so many unable to see such clear and self-evident realities.

Heretic's Corner

"Gnosticism" and "Hidden Knowledge" are simply the cries used to excuse those too fearful or lazy or greedy to do the work of touching the God open to everyone - received and given without payment.

Tend To Your Knitting

The more I read the comments from the Tea Party idiots and their pundits, the more tempted I am to start a blog called "The Therese Defarge Project" to record who said what so we'll know who said what and when. 

Vive la Revolution!

Still, the idea of a Reign of Terror just tires me, now. My attitude toward The Tealiban is basically summed up:

Brunson's Law

Whenever a right-wing conservative is caught in a valid comparison to Nazi fascism, he will immediately invoke Godwin's Law to obfuscate the validity of the comparison.

Finally!

I've been on vacation the past week, and dealing with both a cat with diarrhea (Miutu, not Katzie) and destroying the Glorious Empire on Overlord II, so I'm very behind the times.

But, FINALLY . . . actual thinking people have had enough.

Occupy Wall Street

and they have articulated their points well, I think.

From Counterlight's Peculiars


This is important, and could be a real change in the direction of our nation . . . I hope.  Otherwise, I'll just have to Magneto it up. 

And, here's a Fox "fair-and-balanced" idiot being urbanely and kindly savaged:

Paul Schmaul

I'm sorry, I still don't trust St. Paul. 

My suspicious nature asks, if I were trying to bring down an underground movement that's spreading despite my best efforts, what would I do?  Take it down from inside.  Make myself the spokesman for that movement.  We know Paul was "zealous for the law," so the idea that it's laughable for him to have given his life in that fashion is null and void;  zealots will do anything to further their goal.  It's Paul who moved Christianity farther from Judaism and made such effort to focus it's message away from the central locus of Judaism and establish (abandon?) it among the Gentiles. 

This is, of course, merely my thinking.  What is fact, however, is the frightening worship of Paul which has become part and parcel of Christianity.  We would not consider ordaining a wildly enthusiastic brand-new convert to the priesthood, but Paul is given - according to him, primarily - equal place with the disciples.  The inclusion of his writings in the canon does not impress me, frankly, as the Holy Spirit can move and it still be ignored.  I'm alarmed by the fact that we have a dual deity, not a Triune God, as there is the One God embodied in Christ, and Paul, who's writings - so quick to show fury and disdain and self-absorption - even liberal theologians feel are co-equal, if not more authoritative, than the recorded sayings of Jesus.  Even conservative evangelicals who tout a "clear meaning of Scripture" will, when faced with a bald statement by Jesus, then go off to tell you what He really meant, because Paul said so.

No.  I grant that Paul shows the ineffability of God's work, as there are beautiful passages and good works have come out of - despite it's basically sour nature - Paul's writings.  I will not, however, grant Paul the level of worshipful respect that the institutional church traditionally has.  He's simply not that impressive, and exactly the sort of self-aggrandizing "theologian" that still causes problems.