Art of My Ancestors

Here's something you don't see everyday.

Svarog (similar to Jupiter)

I stumbled across this link to an article showcasing paintings of Slavic pagan gods and mythology by a fairly reknowned Russian artist named Boris Olshansky.

As someone who is of Slavic ancestry (Serbian on mom's side, Russian on my dad's side), I was particularly pleased about the content of these paintings. It was only within the last two years or so that I discovered Slavic paganism and have begun to learn about it as I go along. Due to its proximity, elements of Nordic and Greco-Roman religions left their mark on Slavic paganism with each of the respective religions' pantheons sharing deities of similar rank and characteristics.

Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom (mythology)

While I had some passing familiarity with Slavic mythology from my late grandmother, I was largely ignorant of my ancestors pre-Christian culture. I suppose, however, that was not deliberate. Cyril and Methodius brought Christianity to my peoples and that led to the suppression of the old pagan ways (though not entirely, as some contemporary Christian customs still retain pagan origins like Serbian badnjace (oak Yule logs) and vencici (grass wreaths woven at Pentecost)). With suppression comes ignorance, and I honestly believe my family didn't know the old ways better because that sort of information wasn't available to them. Also, the stigma surrounding pagan beliefs would have prevented them from sharing what they knew as well.

While I am a Catholic, I feel like I would be doing myself a huge disservice if I didn't take the time to become familiar with my ancestors' pagan past. I have no intention of becoming a pagan, but it is important for me to know this part of my ancestral past. After all, you cannot know yourself unless you know where you've come from.

Latter-day interpretation of Jesus and the Moneychangers

All artwork on this entry is by Boris Olshansky and is from this link.

Dixie Man

My husband had a very interesting meeting this morning.

For some weeks, my husband was corresponding with a fellow from an organization called the Sons of Confederate Veterans. My husband, while born and raised in Texas, had ancestors in Louisiana who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV, for short) purports itself to be an organization dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Confederate soldiers who fought to keep the South free from Union control and interference. Members must be documented heirs of the Confederate soldiers.

From a video called "The Irish Brigade". Many Irish immigrants were put into service on both sides of the Civil War, some enlisting as soon as they'd disembarked from the immigrant ships as a means of securing their families' new existence in America ("Gangs of New York" does a pretty good portrayal of this practice). Pic (and video) found here

Though my husband never had much to do with this organization, his family in Texas did. His brother was a member of the SCV, and they paid his funeral expenses when my husband's brother died in a car accident. Since his brother had been able to procure the required proof of ancestry, my husband figured it wouldn't be too hard for him to join the SCV as well. When asked, my husband responded that he would be joining the SCV for both fellowship in the Southern cause, and networking with the intention of picking up gigs from time to time. While I supported my husband's decision, I had some reservations about him joining the SCV. For one, solidarity organizations like this tend to be targeted by infiltrators from intelligence agencies, or used as fronts for ones. While the SCV goes back to the late 19th Century, long before the birth of most intelligence agencies to lend itself credibility to not being a front, it didn't rule out the possibilities of infiltrators since the Anti-Defamation League has labeled the SCV as a hate organization. My husband, who had more than his fair share of dealing with infiltrators of one stripe or another, acknowledged the possibility but didn't give it much thought.

Today was the introductory meeting for new members to the SCV here in southern Arizona. The subject discussed was the role of Arizona during the Civil War. Arizona, according to the leader, requested assistance from the Confederacy because Apache attacks were making living on the frontier dangerous, and that calls to the Union for help had gone unheeded. The Confederacy responded by sending out some assistance to the then Arizona Territory. See map below for reference.

There's something you don't learn much of in school. Pic found here

It may surprise some of you to know that what is today southern Arizona actually seceded with the Confederacy. It was that decision that made the Union government move the state capital from Tucson to Phoenix, where it remains the capital to this day.

Other than that interesting little geographical tidbit, there were some plans discussed regarding a day trip to a shooting range and just general chitchat. My husband got to meet some of the other members. Only men are allowed at SCV meetings, but despite some elderly members, my husband was not the youngest one there. There was a man in his thirties who was of mixed Mexican and White ancestry. He and my husband got to talking, and they hit it off pretty well. My husband's impression of this organization is so far pretty good. If they have a branch for women, I might look into getting involved too. I love history, and though I'm a 2nd generation Serb, my marriage to a descendant of a Confederate veteran might be acceptable grounds for admission.

I still have my reservations about the SCV, but only time will tell if I'm right or just paranoid.

On the Right

Having just returned to the world of blogging, I've had an opportunity to look at my past posts and see how I used to be. There is a most definite right-wing bent to my past posts.

My impression: What in the HELL was I thinking?!

The answer: I wasn't.

I grew up in a rabidly right-wing home, with family who treated Rush Limbaugh's words as Gospel and who never failed to malign anyone who was not conservative or who supported causes that were anything other than conservative ones. And even certain conservative causes, like the pro-life movement, were viewed with suspicion. Naturally, I fell right in step with such devotion. What reason did I have to think different?

Then while on hiatus from blogging, I did what most people never achieve in their lifetimes. I grew up.

And, in the process, I discovered how full of shit right wing America is. Xenophobia is one thing, disenfranchisement, military worship/warhawkism, and straight-up ignorance encouraged by festering Bible-thumping and apocalypse fantasies are other notable traits. But as if that wasn't enough, then came the insane claim that lowering taxes on the wealthy will magically produce jobs. I believed that lie until I began my working life a few months after I'd done the good deed and graduated from college with a degree. Despite having a degree, the only work I could find was a slave-level job in a call center, doing customer service for a major wireless provider.

A good Republican would say, "well, it's better than nothing! You need to work hard and find a better job or better yet, take a second job! Or, better yet, go back to school and get a degree that will earn you money!"

A person with a brain in their head says that there is something very wrong with this picture.

There is nothing like working in a dead-end industry like customer service to see just how bad capitalism, the rabid right with their insane cult-like devotion to Ayn Rand, Israel, and the super wealthy; and the castrated moderate right that calls itself left wing, have failed us. The best and brightest are maligned, while the mediocre and the conformist are held up as ideal; all the while singing in three-part harmony about how wonderful supply-side economics is and you better fucking support the troops!

The result has been a severe uptick in income inequality, more people turning to welfare and food stamps in order to survive, a spike in the cost of living, and two entire generations (mine and the one prior to mine) of working-age people who will never know what it was like to have job security and the income to sustain a middle-class existence.

But of course, nobody in the the government, both the rabidly right wing and the moderately right wing that characterize the Democrat party, will do a damn thing different. Their patrons stand to lose alot of money and influence if any of that should happen.

But now what about those poor people? You know, the ones who need food stamps and Section 8, and Medicaid? Fuck those leeches! CUT CUT CUT! If people die of starvation, who gives a shit-this is AMERICA where you don't need a handout from the government! You pull yourself up by the bootstraps and do it yourself!

By the way, unless you have a means of supporting yourself, it's a wee bit hard to pull yourself up by the bootstraps. Try it sometime.

The funny thing is, you look around Eastern Europe and Latin America, and you can clearly see where the politicians are bought and sold, where there's a tin-pot dictator calling the shots, where crony capitalists hijack the economy, where income inequality is extreme as all getout, where you're constantly under surveillance and the police act with impunity, and think "what a shithole that place is".

It's never occurred to you that we're right on par with those very shitholes you were observing. Perhaps even worse so because our media has done so well hiding what a plutocratic police state America has become.

I can see it right now. Someone from the right will read this post and go "this lazy, brainwashed liberal here is  bitter cuz she doesn't wanna work hard and would rather be a Communist!"

LOL. Communism is just the flip side of your beloved capitalism. One uses material goods for social control, the other reduces humanity to just a commodity to be bought and sold as needed. They both make material goods into god, treat economic activity as a mystical force, and assert itself as a religion (albeit a "secular" one).

I can also see said right winger go "if this communist here doesn't like Amurrika, she should leave".

A thought, I will concede, but a full-on revolt would be alot cheaper and involve less paperwork than moving internationally. Poverty has a way of keeping one tethered.

That, my friends, is why I shredded my Republican registration card and said to hell with you people. Now that I am free of the clutches of the right wing's idiot machine, I will not hesitate to speak out against the right for what they are-the REAL enemies of the state.

tamtam

Symposium-Obama's universal death care

another fine commentary piece by ellis washington-this time in the form of a symposium, which socrates and other famous greek philosophers used to debate ideas and how well those ideas stood up to critical thought.

Symposium-Obama's universal death care

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my favorite line is at the end when socrates says:

"President Obama, you are so supremely enamored with your own abilities, your own words. Like a demigod, you think: if I speak it to the masses, it must be true. To believe that socialized medicine will improve the existentially best health care system in the world is indeed a big lie Goebbels would be envious of."

envious indeed.

tamtam

the bitch list

well, this is more of a pet peeve list, but im calling this 'the bitch list' cuz i bitch about how ridiculous these topics are.

• the environment-i am a notorious critic of global warming. i don't believe that it exists because NON-GOV'T FUNDED SCIENCE IS TELLING A DIFFERENT STORY!!!! we're getting colder (NOT warmer!), and carbon dioxide is much too heavy to float up to the ozone layer. while opposing it pretty much labels you the equivalent of a heretic, if you want to recycle and go 'green', thats fine BUT DONT BAMBOOZLE ME INTO DOING SO CUZ I MAY NOT BE ABLE TO AFFORD IT!!!! but also, aside from the cost, 'green' technology is so new, that its worth and effectiveness hasn't even been proven yet!
• mispronouncing 'illinois'-over my vacation, i was watching TMZ when one of their spazzes interviewed a hunky republican IL senator, and when the spazz said the name 'illinois', he included the 's' at the end of my state's name, so that it sounded like 'ill-in-oys', not 'ill-in-oy'. i wanted to strangle that spazz!! there is absolutely NO excuse for mispronouncing a state's name!! especially if you grew up in this country!! i commented about this on zen wizard's overrated list, but this happens alot with people not from the midwest. illinois is french, as the french dominated the midwest at one point in history, and they left their legacy in the names of the towns, cities, counties, and states (IL, detroit, des moines, joliet, du page (county in IL), fond-du-lac, lacrosse, etc).
• teachers who talk about their personal lives in class-when i was in high school, i used to encounter this alot. i mean, its ok if you talk a little about your personal life to add some variety to class discussions, but dont get into the graphic details! i had a summer school health-careers teacher who told us that when her kids were born and as she was giving birth, the water from her amniotic sac sprayed the intern obstetrician who had come to help her give birth. stuff like that you just dont talk about in class. plus, she talked alot about her kids, and that really bugged me.
• homework over vacation-the peeve says it all
• tests after vacation-like the professor thinks anyone is actually gonna study over the course of the vacation. pffft, yeah right.
• announcers who are boring as hell-i found this to be common in football games, but some nationwide general-sports announcers just plain suck.
• obama-i am a conservative, and i do not approve of our current president's course of action because they are damaging the moral, and industrial fabric of our country. WAKE UP PEOPLE!!! THE MAN IS NOT GOD!!! first he'll take away our jobs and give us a welfare state as well as saddling our future generations with mountains of debt. then, he'll take away our kids and have them serve in brownshirt-style 'obama corps'. i kid you not. it came right outta his mouth on the campaign trail, only he called it, i believe, a 'civilian volunteer army'. in that vein, he seeks to make 'community service' a mandatory thing. EXCUSE ME?! i thought the whole point of 'community service' was a voluntary thing!! even criminals on parole have an option of doing community service as a condition of their parole. if you make community service mandatory, the quality of the service may start to go down because people are being FORCED to do it, not because they want to be there. if you WANT to be there, 9/10 you'll find a better environment.
• liberals-i do not like your kind very much. modern liberalism is a double-standard: you're wrong and because you're wrong, you're a *insert label here*. not only have you taken over the media, you're decieving us into destruction.

well, thats the bitch list for tonight.

tamtam