You know your from California if...

So as not to be outdone by all the redneck, hillbilly, and Texan jokes, somebody had to come up with this, you know you're from California if:





1. Your coworker has 8 body piercing's and none are visible.





2. You make over $300,000 and still can't afford a house.





3. You take a bus and are shocked at two people carrying on a conversation in English.





4. Your child's 3rd-grade teacher has purple hair, a nose ring, and is named Flower.





5. You can't remember...is pot illegal?





6. You've been to a baby shower that has two mothers and a sperm donor.





7. You have a very strong opinion about where your coffee beans are grown, and you can taste the difference between Sumatran and Ethiopian.





8. You can't remember . . . is pot illegal?





9. A really great parking space can totally move you to tears.





10. Gas costs $1.00 per gallon more than anywhere else in the U.S.





11. Unlike back home, the guy at 8:30 am at Starbucks wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses who looks like George Clooney really IS George Clooney.





12. Your car insurance costs as much as your house payment.





13. You can't remember. . .is pot illegal?





14. It's barely sprinkling rain and there's a report on every news station: 'STORM WATCH.'

15. You pass an elementary school playground and the children are all busy with their cell phones or pagers.





16. It's barely sprinkling rain outside, so you leave for work an hour early to avoid all the weather-related accidents.





17. HEY!!!! Is pot illegal????





18. Both you AND your dog have therapists, psychics, personal trainers and cosmetic surgeons.





19. The Terminator is your governor.





20. If you drive illegally, they take your driver's license. If you're here illegally, they want to give you one.

Beltane! Celebrate!

I love Beltane! I love this time of year! It is about the awakening of the earth from the cold of winter. As the mythology says, it is about the earth waking up from it's deep sleep from winter.

Let us look at the new life all around us! Look at all the colors of the flowers that are blooming in our yards and parks. See all the life my friends!

It is miraculous this time of year. Things that were dead all winter are alive with color and are magnificent.

Spring is my favorite time of year. It is now that we should plan our gardens for the wonderful harvest that happens in the summer and fall.

Let us impregnate our gardens. Let us impregnate our lives with love, joy and hope! Beltane and spring is about fertility. It is about growth.

If you have been wanting a baby, what a better than than this to make love and conceive? We are as fertile as the earth is in spring. If you are not wanting a child, then make love to the one you love for the joy of it. Celebrate your relationship! Celebrate the love and the joy that brought you together! Make love and when you do make hope and joy that comes to us each spring.



We were created as emotional and sexual beings. Let us celebrate this! Happiness, joy and hope are glorious emotions, so is our sexuality. Celebrate it! Love it! Create more of it!



Not only is this a grand and wonderful fertile time but it is sacred too. It is at this time that we should all raise our voices and eyes to the Creator and be thankful and full of praise for all that has been given to us. Rejoice with me! Rejoice with each other!



Brightest Beltane Blessings and as it is said, Blessed Be, indeed!

Honor a Fallen Hero!

An Opportunity to Honor a Fallen Eclectic Wiccan Hero!



Greetings Friends, Troops, and Veterans,



As many of you already know, our SWC sponsored Victory Base Open

Circle in Baghdad lost one of our own on May 11, 2006. Eclectic

Wiccan Army soldier PFC Stephen P. Snowberger was a courageous and

honorable young man, 18 years old; when his humvee was hit by and IED

while on patrol in Baghdad. Stephen and the other occupants of the

humvee were killed

instantly.



Here are Stephen's memorial pages at Stars of Freedom Pagan Military

Memorial: http://snowbergerme morial.tripod. com/



The one year anniversary of Stephen's death is soon upon us, and

Deborah Brown is creating a rock garden memorial for Stephen in the

backyard of their family home. And she has sent out a request for

people who would like to help honor the memory of her son this way,

to please send a rock to her to place in this rock garden memorial

for Stephen. She is looking for rocks from every state in the U.S.,

and international support is welcome and appreciated as well.



The rock you may choose to send may be of any size or shape. And

though not required, if you want; you may write on the rock something

to honor Stephen's memory, an appropriate symbol, just put what state

your rock is from, etc. Stephen's choice of emblems is the Encircled

Pentacle.



Here are Deborah Brown's mailing and email addresses:



Deborah Brown

1565 Valley Mine Rd

Lexington, NC 27292



lilgertt@aol. com



Since Stephen's death, his Mother, Deborah Brown, and I have become

good friends, and she a wonderful person. She and her family have

suffered this terrible loss of their youngest family member. And yet

they have and continue to bear this loss with grace and dignity.

Though neither Deborah, or anyone other than Stephen in their family,

have ever been Wiccan/Pagan; she chooses to stand up for and honor

her son's memory and his choice to be a Wiccan. Deborah has also

actively pursued to honor her son, and all of our Wiccan/Pagan

troops, veterans, and military families by supporting the Pentacle

Quest, which we have heard in recent days has at long last been won

in the courts of our nation. Deborah believes and actively supports

the right of our troops and veterans to receive the religious emblems

of their own choosing.



Please feel free to post this message to other groups, blogs, to

friends, etc.



Stephen, we love you and will always remember you with honor and

dignity. May you rest and renew in the Summerlands, until the Moon

rises for you once again.



Thank You and Many Blessings to All,



Kay



Rev. Kay J. Ahl

aka: Tia Hu



In the Spirit of '37'! Amor Vincit Omnia!

http://www.cem. va.gov/cem/ hm/hmemb. asp

Rain, confusion and passion

As rain penetrates an improperly shingled roof, so passion overwhelms a confused mind.



-Buddha

I love these banners!

Funniest quote today...

Shut up voices or I’ll poke you with a Q-tip again.

Viva la Mexico!

MEXICO CITY, April 24 — The Mexico City legislature approved a bill Tuesday to make abortion legal during the first three months of pregnancy, a watershed vote that set the stage for court battles and social clashes between religious conservatives and liberals.

Feminists hailed the vote as a clear victory. For decades, poor women here have resorted to clandestine clinics, traditional midwives and herbal potions to end unwanted pregnancies. Scores die every year in botched abortions. “It’s a triumph for women’s rights,” said María Consuelo Mejía, the director of Catholics for the Right to Decide.

Abortion opponents condemned the measure. “This is a tragic day for the democracy,” said Armando Martínez, the leader of Catholic Lawyers.

The fight has driven a wedge into this deeply Catholic society and shed light on the waning influence of the church in the wake of sexual abuse scandals involving priests. In January, church leaders could not stop the city assembly from passing a law allowing civil unions among homosexuals.

Now with this vote, this capital city became the largest entity in Latin America, outside Cuba and Puerto Rico, to permit women to have abortions on demand in the first trimester. The vote, which legalized abortion within the federal district, means that the 10 million women in Mexico City and its suburbs will have easy access to an abortion. And anyone living in Mexico could travel here for an abortion.

Proponents of the law say they hope it will become a model for states in Mexico, most of which only allow abortion under conditions like rape or danger to the mother’s health.

Many on each side of the issue predicted it would ultimately be challenged on constitutional grounds before the Supreme Court. Opponents said they would challenge it on the grounds that there was a prohibition in the Mexican Constitution against the death penalty that could be broadly interpreted to grant the right to life to unborn children.

Supporters of the vote argue that in 2002 the Supreme Court ruled that abortion was legal in circumstances like rape and incest, and therefore they say it is unlikely that the court would agree to overturn the new law.

Catholic Lawyers, the opposition group, complained that the city assembly had violated the Constitution and its own laws by ignoring a petition for a referendum on the issue. More than 36,000 people had signed the document.

The speeches and legislative maneuvering continued throughout the day before the vote at 6 p.m. Conservatives argued that legalizing abortion would not solve the underlying social problems leading to unwanted pregnancies, while liberals said the conservatives were not facing reality.

“The women of the Federal District are dying from clandestine abortions,” said Leticia Quezada, of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, which controls the assembly. “What we want is not one more death, not here, not anywhere.”

One the other side, Jorge Romero, of the National Action Party, said legalizing abortion would encourage irresponsible sex. “What we are legislating now, what we are asked to approve, is to support juvenile imprudence, unexpected pregnancies,” he said. “Understand this, lawmakers, you are legalizing killing.”

In the end, the vote was 46 to 19 with one abstention. The no votes came mostly from President Felipe Calderón’s conservative National Action Party, which had mounted a media campaign in recent days against the bill.

For older women, the vote represented a long overdue recognition of their plight. Women are seeking abortions, legal or not, they said. The rich fly to the United States or go to certain doctors at private hospitals who do the procedure secretly, they said. The poor must resort to underground clinics and midwives.

Among the supporters of the law gathered on Juárez Avenue near the assembly building a carnival atmosphere reigned. The demonstrators waved signs saying, “My body is mine,” and “It is my right to decide.”

On Donceles Street outside the legislature, the police guarding the building vastly outnumbered the anti-abortion protesters. A block away from the building, about 50 abortion rights advocates had a shouting match with about 200 opponents across the line of riot police separating them. “If there’s life, let it be born,” said Margarita Cerón, the elderly leader of a group of outdoor merchants from a poor suburb.

On Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI publicly condemned the bill. The next day, the archbishop of Acapulco, Felipe Aguirre Franco, said the lawmakers who voted for it would be automatically excommunicated. Liberals replied that the church should not interfere in secular matters.

President Calderón, a conservative who opposes abortion, has stayed above the fight. The first lady, Margarita Zavala, however, has spoken out against the bill.

Antonio Betancourt, Elisabeth Malkin and Marc Lacey contributed reporting.