Who knew that Girls Gone Wild would have such dire consequences?

More from the "I do not make this shit up" files...

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REPENT AMERICA

P.O. Box 30000, Philadelphia, PA 19103
1-800-3-REPENT

For Immediate Release 8/31/05

Contact: Michael Marcavage
1-800-3-Repent, Ext. 4


ACT OF GOD DESTROYS NEW ORLEANS DAYS BEFORE "SOUTHERN DECADENCE"


PHILADELPHIA - Just days before “Southern Decadence”, an annual homosexual celebration attracting tens of thousands of people to the French Quarters section of
New Orleans, an act of God destroys the city.

“Southern Decadence” has a history of filling the French Quarters section of the city with drunken homosexuals engaging in sex acts in the public streets and bars. Last year, a local pastor sent video footage of sex acts being performed in front of police to the mayor, city council, and the media. City officials simply ignored the footage and continued to welcome and praise the weeklong celebration as being an “exciting event”. However, Hurricane Katrina has put an end to the annual celebration of sin.

On the official “Southern Decadence” website (www.SouthernDecadence.com), it
states that the annual event brought in “125,000 revelers” to New Orleans last year, increasing by thousands each year, and up from “over 50,000 revelers” in 1997. This year’s 34th annual “Southern Decadence” was set for Wednesday, August 31, 2005 through Monday, September 5, 2005, but due to massive flooding and the damage left by the hurricane, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco has ordered everyone to evacuate the city.

The past three mayors of New Orleans, including Sidney Barthelomew, Marc H. Morial, and C. Ray Nagin, issued official proclamations welcoming visitors to “Southern Decadence”. Additionally, New Orleans City Council made other proclamations recognizing the annual homosexual celebration.

“Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city,” stated Repent America director Michael Marcavage. “From ‘Girls Gone Wild’ to ‘Southern Decadence’, New Orleans was a city that opened its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. May it never be the same,” he continued.

New Orleans is also known for its Mardi Gras parties where thousands of drunken men revel in the streets to exchange plastic jewelry for drunken women to expose their breasts. This annual event sparked the creation of the “Girls Gone Wild” video series.

“Let us pray for those ravaged by this disaster. However, we must not forget that the citizens of New Orleans tolerated and welcomed the wickedness in their city for so long,” Marcavage said. “May this act of God cause us all to think about what we tolerate in our city limits, and bring us trembling before the throne of Almighty God,” Marcavage concluded.

“[God] sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust”. (Matthew 5:45)

Link to press release: http://www.repentamerica.com/pr_hurricanekatrina.html



So Help Me God now on sale at the Repent America Bookstore!
"The Ten Commandments Judge" tells his story, including his pledge before his election, his refusal to obey an order by the Federal District Court, and why he believes this issue is the most crucial of all political questions.


REPENT AMERICA - CALLING A NATION IN REBELLION TOWARD GOD TO REPENTANCE
Repent America is an evangelistic organization based in the birthplace of America, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Go to: REPENT AMERICA

I do not make this shit up!

This is the text of an actual email I received on Monday...

From: Columbia Christians for Life
Subject: Hurricane Katrina satellite image looks like 6-week fetus
To: Columbia Christians for Life

Satellite picture of Hurricane Katrina at NOAA.com looks like a 6-week unborn human child as it comes ashore the Gulf Coast, vicinity states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida at 12:32 PM, Monday, August 29, 2005



Hurricane "Katrina" (reportedly means "Pure" in Russian) - satellite image - Monday, 29 Aug 05, 12:32 PM (EDT) - coming ashore Gulf Coast - satellite image looks like 6-week fetus

check out NOAA website: www.noaa.gov/

The image of the hurricane above with its eye already ashore at 12:32 PM Monday, August 29 looks like a fetus (unborn human baby) facing to the left (west) in the womb, in the early weeks of gestation (approx. 6 weeks). Even the orange color of the image is reminiscent of a commonly used pro-life picture of early prenatal development (see sign with picture of 8-week pre-born human child below). In this picture, and in another picture in today's on-line edition of USA Today*, this hurricane looks like an unborn human child.

Louisiana has 10 child-murder-by-abortion centers - FIVE are in New Orleans
www.ldi.org ('Find an Abortion Clinic [sic]')

Baby-murder state # 1 - California (125 abortion centers) - land of earthquakes, forest fires, and mudslides
Baby-murder state # 2 - New York (78 abortion centers) - 9-11 Ground Zero
Baby-murder state # 3 - Florida (73 abortion centers) - Hurricanes Bonnie, Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne in 2004; and now, Hurricane Katrina in 2005

God's message: REPENT AMERICA !

Quote of the Day

"I felt like the P was getting between me and my fans."

- Sean "Diddy" Combs, on the Today Show 8/16/05, on why he was changing his name yet again.

Inspirational Song for Friday... and beyond

Today's inspirational song, boys and girls, is Eminem's "Mosh". Released right around the election in 2004, it's the best call to arms I've heard since the demise of Rage Against the Machine. Yes, Emimem is problematic in many ways. "'97 Bonnie and Clyde" is one of the most disturbing songs I've ever heard (Tori Amos's version on Strange Little Girls is even more disturbing, if that's possible). But he's also quite talented, and when he gets it right, he gets it really right. I've left off the first verse; it's just the standard hip-hop braggadocio.


...
Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't stear you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors

To the people up top, on the side and the middle,
Come together, let's all bomb and swamp just a little
Just let it gradually build, from the front to the back
All you can see is a sea of people, some white and some black
Don't matter what color, all that matters is we gathered together
To celebrate for the same cause, no matter the weather
If it rains let it rain, yea the wetter the better
They ain't gonna stop us, they can't, we're stronger now more then ever,
They tell us no we say yea, they tell us stop we say go,
Rebel with a rebel yell, raise hell we gonna let em know
Stomp, push up, mush, fuck Bush, until they bring our troops home come on just . . .

Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't stear you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors, come on

Imagine it pouring, it's raining down on us,
Mosh pits outside the oval office
Someone's trying to tell us something, maybe this is God just saying
we're responsible for this monster, this coward, that we have empowered
This is Bin Laden, look at his head nodding,
How could we allow something like this, Without pumping our fist
Now this is our, final hour
Let me be the voice, and your strength, and your choice
Let me simplify the rhyme, just to amplify the noise
Try to amplify the times it, and multiply it by six
Teen million people are equal of this high pitch
Maybe we can reach Al Quaida through my speech
Let the President answer on high anarchy
Strap him with AK-47, let him go
Fight his own war, let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our soil
No more psychological warfare to trick us to think that we ain't loyal
If we don't serve our own country we're patronizing a hero
Look in his eyes, it's all lies, the stars and stripes
They've been swiped, washed out and wiped,
And Replaced with his own face, mosh now or die
If I get sniped tonight you'll know why, because I told you to fight

So come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't stear you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors

And as we proceed, to mosh through this desert storm, in these closing statements,
if they should argue, let us beg to differ, as we set aside our differences,
and assemble our own army, to disarm this weapon of mass destruction
that we call our president, for the present,
and mosh for the future of our next generation,
to speak and be heard, Mr. President, Mr. Senator

The Poetry of Spam

I don't know about you, but my inbox has changed. Gone are the days of "Wet hot sluts!", "Barely legal", and "XXX Britney". Today, the spammers are waxing poetic. Not intentionally, of course. I know that they are using some sort of randomizer for words so that they can slip by spam blockers undetected. But like the times in 3rd grade when I imagined that the patterns in the ice on my school bus window were drawn just for me by some kind soul who rode the bus before me (I sure was lonely that year!), I like to think of some brilliant poet carefully crafting these absurd yet beautiful subject lines. Hey, if they can make the utterances of Donald Rumsfeld into poetry, anything is possible!

Here are some of my favorites:

Re: Or sing as symmetry operative
Re: At look so deft ornithology
Have close so obituary
As forget or snail costumier
Be think is attrition
The speak by tinderbox
I fall be genealogy recycle
He type he outrange chalk
I play go flux.

Songs for Friday

Taking a lead from my friend Chris at Cheeze Blog, here are the first 10 songs I heard today on random shuffle (walking to work is the best!!):

1. Mater Dolores, El Vez
2. Particle Man, They Might Be Giants
3. Under Your Spell, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
4. Life and How to Live It, REM
5. I Believe, REM
6. Kinda I Want To, Nine Inch Nails
7. Bakerman, Midnight Oil
8. The Authority Song, Jimmy Eat World
9. Four Women, Nina Simone
10. Superstition, Stevie Wonder

And at work, I've been listening to Radio Nova, a station I discovered when staying at our niece's apartment in Paris last winter. It's got a great combination of old stuff and new stuff, a lot of which I don't know. Plus very few interruptions for publicité! Check it out at www.novaplanet.com

Smoke and Mirrors

Many people have been asking me what I think of the nomination of John Roberts to fill Sandra Day O’Connor’s seat on the Supreme Court, especially in light of my piece “Signifying Nothing,” which has gotten wide circulation.

I see this nomination as just one in another of the Bush administration’s smart strategic moves to keep the left busy fire fighting, thus expending time and resources, but not actually advancing forward. I believe that the Bush administration is purposely not doing anything so outrageous that people will pour into the streets.

Don’t get me wrong. Bush and Co are doing outrageous things everyday. And they’re getting away with it. The recess appointment of John Bolton is just the latest example in a long line of stunningly brazen moves that consolidate power and flaunt convention. Perhaps it’s the shock that dampens the people’s reaction to these moves. Or perhaps it’s the flawless Orwellian “doublespeak” of such Bush programs as the Patriot Act, The Clear Skies Initiative, and No Child Left Behind that leaves people’s heads spinning and unable to think clearly. The Bush Juggernaut is like the most skilled Las Vegas magician: we only see what they want us to see. And even those of us who see the sleight of hand behind the card trick are often at a loss of how to explain the illusion before they’ve moved on to the next one. (I’m reminded of the Thomas Mann novella, Mario and the Magician, about nascent fascism. It’s been years since I’ve read it; I’ll have to re-read it and see if it’s relevant to our times.)

But what I’m talking about with the Roberts nomination is somewhat different. Alberto Gonzalez’s name had been tossed about for years as Bush’s top pick for the Supreme Court, even before Abu Graib, even before he became Attorney General. But I believe that the administration sensed that a Gonzales nomination to replace O’Connor would produce too much protest. So instead, they nominated John Roberts. He has a shady history no doubt, including gratuitously arguing during another case that Roe v. Wade was a bad decision that should be overturned while he was Solicitor General under Bush. But what the media is portraying is a relatively young, good looking man, who his colleagues all describe as “nice”. And the left is reacting in kind. Instead of calling for an outright rejection of Roberts, or even a filibuster, leaders on the left are asking that his background be “thoroughly investigated“. That’s as lame-ass a protest as the Dems, before the Iraq War started, complaining that they should be consulted in the decision to go to war.

Another example of this “give ‘em enough to keep ‘em busy, but not enough to provoke massive protest” is what they’re doing with reproductive rights. Bush, et al, have never hidden the fact that they want to outlaw abortion in the U.S. But instead of overturning Roe v. Wade outright, they have been slowly chipping away at reproductive rights for years. They know that legal abortion has become an accepted fact for the majority of Americans, and that most would not accept the outlawing of abortion. So instead they wear it away step by step. This long-term assault seems much less serious to the general public. The result is that people on the left who see the true Bush agenda and call it out are accused of crying wolf. And the difficulty of sustaining a drawn-out defense of Roe wears on the financial and human resources of the choice movement.

Perhaps they’ll save Alberto Gonzalez for when Rhenquist retires, which I believe will be once the Roberts confirmation goes through. Or maybe they’re satisfied with him as Attorney General for now. What’s certain is that Roberts will get confirmed. Remember that a Democratic-controlled Senate confirmed Clarence Thomas. Anyone who expects any real opposition from that corner is sorely deluded.

Every Sperm is Sacred; or, Does Nick Cannon Masturbate?

So I finally saw the video for Nick Cannon's song "Can I Live". I'd heard about it, but hadn't seen it for myself until recently. It's pretty outrageous.

It opens with a scene of a protest at an abortion clinic. The camera follows a young African American woman as she runs the gauntlet towards the door to the clinic. So far, so good. It's a realistic portrayal of the insanity that goes on outside clinics across the country every day.

But then, you start to realize what the lyrics are about. Turns out that the woman in the video is supposed to be Nick's mother, and he is singing to her, as her 8 week old fetus, not to kill him:
"You see me in your sleep so you can't kill your dreams
300 Dollars that's the price of living what?
Mommy I don't like this clinic
Hopefully you'll make the right decision
And don't go through with the Knife Decision"

Later on he sings, with an incredible amount of ego:
"That's a life inside you look at your tummy
What is becoming ma I am Oprah bound
You can tell he's a star from the Ultrasound"

OK, here's something I've always wanted to point out to people who say "what if your mother aborted you?" Well, you know what? I wouldn't know because I wouldn't be here! It's such a ridiculous argument. If Nick Cannon's mother had had an abortion, he wouldn't know because he wouldn't be here, and we wouldn't know either! Or as Rev. Katherine Ragsdale, the former chair of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice would put it, in any situation, you have a series of choices, but you don't get the opportunity to live each one out, so you can't know if you made the "right" decision, only if it's the best one for you at the time given the circumstances.

Anyway, back to Nick's video.

The woman, about to have an abortion, runs from the clinic still wearing the paper gown, in tears, and the song moves to the chorus, sung in the video by a choir of children wearing t-shirts that say "life" or something like that:
"I Will Always Be apart of you
Trust Your Soul Know it's always true
If I Could Talk I Would Say To You
CAN I LIVE
CAN I LIVE
I Will Always Be apart of you
Trust Your Soul Know it's always true
If I Could Talk I Would Say To You
CAN I LIVE
CAN I LIVE"

The song ends with Nick hugging a woman who seems to be his real mother, and saying"
"I ain't passing no judgment
Ain't making no decisions
I am just telling ya'll my story
My love life
I love my mother for giving me life
We all need to appreciate life
A strong woman that had to make a sacrifice
Thanks for listening
Thanks for listening
Mama thanks for listening"

But in reality he IS passing judgment. By recording this song, and making this video, he is making a strong anti-choice statement, one that is surely having a big impact on his fans. When I saw it, my reaction was, "well, there goes a whole new anti-choice generation." I taught sex ed for six years, and many of the youth I taught were very anti-choice, even those girls who had had abortions. Their attitude is "you made your bed, now lie in it". I can see many of them quoting and referencing Nick's song to justify their anti-choice opinions.

Now I am not saying that Nick's mom should have had an abortion or not. I support her, and all women's, right to have a child, as well as to have an abortion. What I find troublesome is Nick taking on the persona of an "unborn child" and essentially saying "mommy, don't kill me," a favorite quote and sing of many clinic protesters.

Evidently, this video is getting played on TRL on MTV. I can guarantee that a video in which a woman chose abortion would be censored by MTV as too controversial. Rarely, if ever, do you see a woman choose abortion on TV (Maude, Six Feet Under). More often, a woman might consider abortion, but then have a miscarriage on the way to the clinic (Party of Five), or she decides to keep the baby after all (Dawson's Creek). Occasionally, you will see a woman talk about an abortion she's had in the past (90210). But that's a topic for a future blog!

Click here for Sunsara's take on the song: http://sunsara.blogspot.com/2005/06/nick-cannon-dances-with-devil.html

Guess Who's Back!

OK, my adoring fans, I'm back. I've been out of things, because well, life got in the way. Family crisis, leaving old job, getting new job... you know, the minor stuff.

Right now I'm writing from a wonderful place, the Pan-T Ranch in Montana. It's really amazing and beautiful here, not like any place I've ever been. I'm here with 6 other fabulous women, 2 who I already knew and 4 new friends. These are some kick-ass women: an abortion provider who stood up to relentless protests at her home by the Lambs of Christ (who are neither meek nor Christ-like), an anti-nuke activist who has gone to jail more than 100 times for protesting nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons, a woman who ran a domestic violence shelter more than 20 years, an amazing vegetarian cook, a young communist who's done great work with homeless youth in New York City, and a woman who started out her activism by telling Nixon to stop the war as she received the "Young American Medal for Service" and hasn't stopped since. We went to a peace rally today in Livingston, MT with "Montana Women For..." It was good to see what's going on in some place other than the north east in terms of protesting the war.

In addition to all the great women, there are some great animals here, too. My favorite is the brand new kitten, Blue. I am rarely without her in my arms. Yesterday I announced that I was starting a new form of meditation called "kitty meditation" that involves relaxing by playing with the kitten. There is also an older cat named Sam, and 4 dogs: Kili, Violet, Bean, and Katie. I have been informed by the women here that I have to change my profile - they say I am not a future crazy cat lady, but that I am already there.

But it's not all relaxing, here. We are spreading the word about the World Can't Wait in between wonderful meals.

I'll try and post more while I'm here, and before I start my new job next week with Military Families Speak Out.