The Loveshade Family Blog

America spends a much higher percentage of it's money on health care than any other industrialized nation.  And yet it has the worst life expectency and highest infant mortality rate, according to a study by the non-profit and non-partisan Commonwealth Fund.

This study is something to chew on for those who are opposed to a system of national health care, where every citizen is provided with medical insurance.  The opposition claims such a system would mean worse and more expensive health care.  But the experience of other nations says otherwise.

You can read the details in "U.S. Health-Care System Gets a "D." by Catherine Arnst.

Posted by Alden Loveshade at 12:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

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"As Congress weighs how to treat and try suspected terrorists, it should consider the story of Maher Arar, a Canadian Muslim.

"His case is a textbook example of what can go wrong, and why Americans should be leery of embracing the harsh tactics President Bush wants applied to terror suspects."

Arar was arrested, sent to another country where he was confined for about a year, beaten, and made a confession to something he couldn't possibly have done.  Torture is not only cruel and inhumane, it's ineffective.  The Spanish Inquisition used those methods, and terrified many into making false confessions.  Will it help our "war against terror" to use cruel methods that are likely to get us completely inaccurate information?

Read Maher Arar's story at http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060920/cm_usatoday/everysuspectisnotaterroristjustaskhim

Posted by Alden Loveshade at 06:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

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Sgt. Patrick Stewart may be the first American Wiccan ever killed in combat. He was honored with the bronze star and the purple heart. But he was the only veteran in a whole cemetery without a memorial plaque because they refused to put up anything with the Wiccan pentagram. ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/03/AR2006070300968.html)

Now they have, even though the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs still refuses to accept Wicca. The state of Nevada learned they didn't have to do what Veterans Affairs said, so they honored him. (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20060913-1728-nv-wiccansoldier1stld-writethru.html)

How can they say you can fight and be killed for your beliefs, but if you die for them and for America they'll refuse to recognize your religion?

There are about 1,800 Wiccans who are in active service in America's military. "Wicca is one of the fastest-growing faiths in the country. Its adherents have increased almost 17-fold from 8,000 in 1990 to 134,000 in 2001, according to the American Religious Identification Survey." (That's what is says in the Washington Post article). So how can they not accept it?

Because they don't understand what Wicca is. If you don't know, I'm a Wiccan priestess. Wiccans aren't Satan worshippers and don't even believe in Satan. We do not practice black magic. We do not cast evil spells on people. Wicca is a nature religion that believes in doing good for people and the earth.

We still have a battle. Veterans Affairs lets atheists use a symbol of their beliefs but not Wicca. But religious freedom affects everyone. Even if you aren't Wiccan, remember what my friend Alden Loveshade who helped me with this article said. "If you refuse to give freedom to one religion, you refuse to give it to them all."

You can learn more about Wicca at http://lorien.loveshade.org/wicca/ and fight to have Veterans Affairs recognize it by checking out Lady Liberty League at http://www.circlesanctuary.org/liberty/veteranpentacle/ And you can see that even Christianity Today agrees at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/123/12.0.html

Posted by Lorien Loveshade at 07:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

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Who will be the next Ruler of the World?  Who are Discordians for Jesus?  Will Planet X be named Eris?  Did a prostitute really get named as a saint?  And do we really need a new Art Editor?

Find out by checking out our Ek-sen-trik Discordian Snooze Letter September 2006.

Posted by Reverend Loveshade at 06:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

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"I would be very careful about using our troops as nation builders. I believe the role of the military is to fight and win war and therefore prevent war from happening...."  George W. Bush (2000)

Is Bush working to prevent wars, and is he against using U. S. troops as "nation builders?"  Even a casual reading of the news will say otherwise.

Pat M. Holt, former chief of staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, makes some excellent points on this and other paradoxes of the Bush administration, including America's fight against democracy, at http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0907/p09s01-coop.html

Posted by Alden Loveshade at 05:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

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United States President George W. Bush finally admitted that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been holding people in secret prisons and using secret interrogation methods.  This is supposedly a good thing, something to "keep America safe."

I remember being taught about countries that held people in secret prisons and used secret interrogation methods for the "good of the country."  But those were bad countries, whereas America is good.  Right?

Then why have European lawmakers said that the CIA had secretly flown people to countries where they could face torture?  If torture in wrong if done by Americans, why is it OK if America pays somebody else to do it for them?  And if they aren't being tortured and the methods being used are appropriate, then why do they have to be kept secret?

Bush said the secrecy is necessary because otherwise terrorists could learn about the methods of interrogation and then could learn how to resist them.  Or is the secrecy necessary because Americans could learn about the methods being used and would realize they're unAmerican?

Read the article at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060906/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_15

Posted by Alden Loveshade at 04:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

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"This summer, a group of teenagers has disrobed near restaurants, bookstores and galleries, igniting a debate about whether this bohemian southern Vermont town should ban a practice that has been tolerated until now." That's from an article called "Nude teens raising eyebrows in Vermont."

In Vermont, public nudity is legal! But towns and cities can make laws against it. But why? What is wrong with the human body? Should we be ashamed of how we were created?

You can read the article at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060905/ap_on_fe_st/naked_town and read my opinion about being an adult, teen, preteen, and child nudist at http://lorien.loveshade.org/opinions/nudism.html

(One of our correspondents pointed out that the original link to the article is no longer valid.  As of today, 10 January 2007, you can read a version of this story at http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2006/08/23/law_of_nature_prevails_in_vermont/)

Posted by Lorien Loveshade at 04:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (0)

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Is Pluto a planet or not?  Many astronomers are up in arms over the declaration of the International Astronomical Union that Pluto, along with a couple other heavenly bodies, are not planets.  Pluto has been considered the ninth planet since its discovery in 1930, so why the change?  Is it because scientists discovered that Pluto didn't fit the established definition of a planet?

No.  There never has been an established definition of a planet, until now.  And a number of scientists don't like it.  Is this a matter of scientific debate on the validity of observational and experimental evidence, or is this pure politics?

Alan Stern, a planetary scientist in Boulder, Colorado who organized a petition of hundreds of U.S. scientists opposed to the IAU decision, claims it's politics.

"The IAU can say the sky is green all day long and that doesn't make it so," said Stern.  (See article at http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060901/sc_nm/space_pluto_dc)

But Stern's statement would imply that there is "one right answer" to the question.  But there isn't.  Dividing non-planetary heavenly bodies from planetary ones is a matter of an arbitrary perspective.  Make one defintion, and Pluto and the others are planets.  Define it differently, and they aren't.

Before human beings discovered, defined and named Pluto, it followed its course through the heavens. After they discovered it and called it the ninth planet, it followed its course through the heavens. Now that scientists say it is not a planet, it follows its course through the heavens. And if they declare it a planet once again, it will still follow its course through the heavens.

Changing the definition of reality doesn't change reality, only our perspective. And that's what this debate is really all about.

Posted by Alden Loveshade at 04:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

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