Scientific anniversary

100 years today, the news was announced that Edwin Hubble had discovered that the Milky Way was not the only galaxy in the universe.
https://www.alternet.org/milky-way/

Polling: An Occult Science

Polling is an occult science, like reading tea leaves or casting bones. The fortune telling/pollster methodology is opaque and varied, and not every practitioner is gifted with second sight or basic smarts. Some fortune tellers/pollsters are charlatans. So, in general, fortune telling/polling results, even if interesting, are neither replicable nor reliable. Many wise folks ignore all the occult sciences as they prefer reliable information. However, if you do follow the polling (willingly or compulsively), it might be useful to view polling like another of the occult sciences: palmistry. First, consider that the palmist/pollster) might be unskilled, their method faulty, or their predictions manipulative. If the palmistry/pollster reading seems to be good, then evaluate the findings. In palmistry, the dominant hand (usually the right hand) tells where your current actions could lead you (like, oh no, 8 kids!) while your other hand shows how you shape your own destiny (like, phew, just 2!). Polling, likewise, on the one hand, could show where current actions could lead, (oh no!) while, on the other hand, we hold the ballot, which enables us to shape our own destiny (phew!). Don't let fortune tellers/pollsters scare you. Our destiny is in our hands and the future is not yet cast. And remember that when tangling with fortune tellers/pollsters, skepticism is a virtue.

Poor political strategy re: Osteen catching fire

I urge us not to get caught up in this. I am concerned that Cat Ladies for Kamala is getting off track with old grievances and anti-evangelical fervor rather keeping their eyes and ire on the troublemakers spreading damaging lies about the federal response to Helene. Joel Osteen again; we've done that topic to death, DUers. Yes, I remember the anger over Osteen not opening his church early enough during the Texas flooding, but that is old news. Today I saw a fb message reposted from Cat Ladies for Kamala attacking megachurch pastor Joel Osteen over a supposed failure to respond to the hurricane crisis. It reads:
"Did you see where Joel Osteen and other wealthy megachurch pastors are giving huge sums of money and personally helping with flood cleanup and rebuild after Hurricane Helene? Me neither." Lots of cat ladies are pouring gasoline on this fire. It is being reposted like crazy. I pointed out on the Cat Ladies fb page that Osteen's page asks for prayer and states that "We are actively working with our partners on the ground in the impacted areas to help those in need." I pointed out that Dolly is from the affected area, so she can assume a leadership role, while it would be presumptuous for Osteen to step out in front of local partners on the ground. And, yes, I am braced for some severe backlash from that Cat Ladies fb page. I'm pouring myself some Southern Comfort in preparation.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

I posted this as reply #8 to the General Discussion post: Vance to Appear with 'Prophet' Who Says Harris Is a Witch 

Harris is Baptist, but what if she were practicing witchcraft, so what? The military may now acknowledge Wiccan service members who have given their lives with the pentacle symbol on their grave markers. So, respect for veterans, please, Mr. Vance. "Practicing witchcraft" in this "prophet's" context implies practicing evil. However, some Wiccans and other pagans hold with the Three Fold Rule, which is that any energy you send out, positive or negative, returns three-fold. Those holding that belief are unlikely to wish political rivals harm! Instead, they would most likely hope, pray, and vote positive energy to protect women, people of color, Haitians, LBTQ+, immigrants, the childless, the poor, pagans, and the world from the cruelty, harm, bigotry, and deceit perpetrated by Vance, Trump, and their ilk. Could some people of faith, any faith, wish, pray, or cast spells to do harm? Well, sure, but all know that voting is the most efficacious way to mop up Repugs. (Please know I am trying to be respectful and I am not trying to speak for all witches or pagans or people of faith.)

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/veterans-win-right-post-religious-symbol-headstones

I Love Lucy redux

I just flipped on an episode. Lucy bought herself a new hat behind Ricky's back so he grabbed her and spanked her. These scenes from old sitcoms used to make me shrug. They seemed dated, out-of-touch, history, another time, didn't age well. But today my stomach tightened. Maybe the Magas will be adding this corporal-punishment-for-wives episode to the Project 2025 training films.

Self deleted

Star member here asks

What are stickies? I earned some when I re-upped my membership, and I see directions on how to create them, but what are they?

Dionysus inspiration?

This myth is violent and gruesome, so fainthearted DUers please turn back now! Dionysus is the Greek god of wine and theater. In Orphic Hymn (#41), he is identified as both male and female, making him an icon among some in the LGBTQ+ community. Euripides' play "The Bacchae" features the god and was first performed in 405 BCE. In the tragedy, King Pentheus violates women's right to follow their own religious beliefs and violates their right to privacy. It doesn't end well for him. The Theban king, and his followers, forbid the worship of Dionysus. Under the angered god's influence, Pentheus' women followers madly rush into the mountain to practice wild rituals. Dionysus retaliates against the king by weakening his mind. Appealing to his purient interests, Pentheus is persuaded to climb a tree to spy on the women's rites. In so doing, he violates women's privacy. Dionysus causes the women celebrants who had rejected him to mistake their king for a wild animal. In a frenzy, the women sacrifice the apparent animal by tearing him apart, limb from limb. The king's mother had been complicit in repressing worship. So, thinking she is seeing the body of a slain lion, she places her son's head on a pike and parades it back to town. Only then did the god drop the veil from her eyes. The god's retribution was brutal and pitiless. But for the barbarian women who worshipped Dionysus and accompanied him in his travels, "The madness of Dionysus enabled these women to come together in large groups and to feel their solidarity and power independent of the control of men" (Arthur Evans, The God of Ecstasy, 1988).
In America, solidarity among women and those who care about them is needed now, but with more political organizing and saving mad drunken dancing for Kamala's victory. And for those who would be king, who would interfere with our right to choose our own religious beliefs and nonbeliefs, who would violate our right to privacy, and who would interfere with our right to vote (our civilized way of registering opposition), could The Bacchae serve as a cautionary tale?

Gullible Democrat seeks relief.

Recent unsettling events make it hard for me to trust my instincts as to what is real. I woke up Monday morning wondering, for a groggy moment, if I had dreamed Sunday's events. Since then, I have stumbled across several DU posts with unlabeled satirical content; I've had to sort it out with fact checking. So, please, check that your sources are trustworthy before posting, consult the Snopes website when content is sensational before you post it, and label homemade satirical content. Inform me or amuse me, but please don't baffle me. P.S. Just so you know, Snopes published that it is FALSE that Trump claimed to have lost his entire ear and claimed that its regrowth has amazed his doctors. Trump made no such claim, the rumor that he did is FALSE (but, for me, somehow, somewhat believable).

American Dingo Democrat 🐕

"Yellow Dog Democrat" (YDD) is a traditional term for Southerners who are such loyal Democrats that they would vote for a yellow dog over a Republican. In some sense, all DUers share YDD tendencies. The term YDD, however, seems dated and regional to me; an updated term is needed. The yellow dog is actually an indigenous American dog breed, not imported by Europeans, but arriving by the same route as America's indigenous people. Other names for the breed include Carolina dog, yaller dog, American dingo, Dixie dingo, and Carolina dingo. So, I am an "American Dingo Democrat" because I love Joe, but I would cast my ballot for an American Dingo over SOB Trump. 🐕