Tag Archives: Monsanto

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PWN #99: Blue Plaque, Okeechobee, Irish People are Pagan & More

The 99th edition of PWN started out with some discussion of the long awaited Supreme Court decision on two cases involving marriage equality. Hollingsworth v Perry and United States v Windsor. These land mark cases are the end all be all on the issue of marriage equality, but they do have some heavy sway over the issue.  A pro-marriage equality ruling in the Hollingsworth case could make same-sex marriage legal in the state of California. A pro-marriage equality ruling in the Windsor case could make it so that all states, regardless of their standing on same-sex marriage, would have to honor a same-sex marriage from states that do recognize them. Both favorable rulings would pave the way for the United States to legally recognize same-sex marriage on a Federal level. The rulings/opinions are scheduled to be announced Wednesday the 26th, you can go to the SCOTUS blog and read/hear the announcements live starting at 10am ET.

Zaracon and RevKess both feel strongly about the marriage equality issue. As a gay man, RevKess would love to see it possible for him to at some point to be legally married to a man he loves. Zaracon has always been a strong proponent of LGBT rights.

Links

  • The significant global loss of millions of honeybees is a topic that worries many in the Pagan world. Albert Einstein is attributed with the quote “If the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination….no more men!” Last fall when 12 million bees dropped dead in Florida in a 1 and half mile radius, everyone was at a loss. Research seems to indicate that their deaths were due to pesticide spraying.
  • Ironically, one of those pesticide manufactures, along with two other GMO scientists, have been awarded the World Food Prize, the Nobel Prize of food.
  • Doreen Valiente blue plaqueThe BBC, and many other news agencies and Pagan media sources, have reported on the Blue Plaque commemoration in honor of Doreen Valiente. Ms. Valiente is called by many “the Mother of Modern Witchcraft.” The block of flats she grew up in Brighton, UK, is the home of this Blue Plaque.
  • BBC Radio 4 story on Modern Witchcraft from 2009.
  • Coy Mathis, a transgender girl in Colorado, has won a case against the public school she attended last year. In this ruling the school must allow her to use the girls’ room.
  • In related transgender news, the OutServe-SLDN leader, Allyson Robinson, has been forced to resign by the board of OutServe-SLDN. Many others in the administration of the military LGBT organization have also resigned in protest of her ouster.
  • Related to both LGBT issues and the military, the interim civilian Secretary of the Air Force is the highest ranking gay man in the United States government. Eric Fanning has been the undersecretary of the Air Force since his confirmation in April and served as deputy undersecretary and deputy chief management officer for the Navy since 2009.
  • Our friend the Mead Muse reports on her experience at the first Summer Solstice festival at Lake Ockeechobee in Florida. As many of you may recall, there was some controversy surrounding this festival because of the evangelical ministers in Pahokee, FL. Peter Dybing of the Lady Liberty League met with those ministers and helped convince them to no stage protests during the festival. By next week we will have more news and information on this festival and other recent festivals.
  • Mama Gina was in attendance at the Ockeechobee festival and played this new song she wrote for the occasion.
  • the Association of Catholic Priests in the United Kingdom are bemoaning that the Irish people seem to be go back to their Pagan ways. They don’t mean Pagan in the sense that most of us mean Pagan. They are saying that the Irish people have become lazy in their faith and in their humanity.
  • Edward Snowden has been charged with espionage over the NSA leaks.
  • Snowden admits that he sought the work with Booz Allen to probe and reveal the information he gained while working the government contract.

Music

  1. Omnia – Teachers – Wolf Love 
  2. Frenchy and the Punk (recorded as Gypsy Nomads) – Vaudeville Voodoo – Happy Madness 

Additional Links

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PWN #96: Florida Pagans, Monsanto, and more

Click to Listen

Click to Listen

The 96th edition of Pagan Weekly News led off with news from the state of Florida. Lots of things going on down there for the Pagan and New Age communities. What with the uproar, now simmered down, in Pahokee over the first Summer Solstice Pagan Festival and the new banning of herbal tinctures state wide.

After a false start, RevKess was able to get things going an hour late. The joys of doing things live and hitting technical issues that cannot be resolved on our end. Thank you to the BTR help desk for taking the time to get things fixed. Still don’t know what actually happened, but it is a fix.

Links

  • Florida Pagan Summer Solstice Festival near Pahokee, FL:
    • Coverage from Florida.NewsZap.com. This first bit of coverage does not bode well for the event, but look at the links below before you react. If you aren’t familiar with these happenings then you might be pleasantly surprised.
    • The Mead Muse writes about the early information on the Summer Solstice Festival.
    • First press release from the Lady Liberty League detailing the goals of the Task Force.
    • Second press release from the Lady Liberty League detailing the results of Peter Dybing’s meeting with several community pastors from Pahokee.
    • Video coverage from a local news station: 
  • Monsanto backs down from lobbying in the European Union. More coverage from a German website.
  • Could a Tea Part-Democrat alliance be slowing progress in Washington?
  • SARS-like virus, part of the coronavirus family, appears in the Midddle East and Europe. Watch some video coverage from CNN: 
  • After Pope Francis appeared to perform an impromptu exorcism before thousands of people, Father Gabriele Amorth, head of the International Association of Exorcists, is calling for the rules to be relaxed and allow all priests to perform the rite. 
  • More witch hysteria in Africa.
  • Community notes from the Wild Hunt: Cherry Hill Seminary receives $10,000 donation match challenge and the Solar Cross Temple helps Oklahoma.
  • Patrick McCollum revisits the religious matrix in a guest posting on the Wild Hunt.
  • NA student fined for wearing eagle feather. 17 year old Poarch Creek Band of Indians member wore an eagle feather to her graduation from Escambia Academy High School in Alabama and has her diploma and transcripts withheld and fined $1,000.

Music

  1. Tuatha Dea – Bagabi – Kith & Kin
  2. Kellianna – Serpent Mound – I Walk With the Goddess 
  3. Spiral Dance – Asgard’s Chase – Through a Sylvan Doorway
  4. Omnia – Shamaniac – Wolf Love 
  5. Frenchy and the Punk (as Gypsy Nomads) – Tall Tales from the Tavern – Thread & Stone 
  6. Dragon Ritual Drummers – Bamboula – Volume 2

Other News….

Bonus Videos

Paradiso and Rasamayi have a new video available on YouTube: 

Celia is giving away free digital downloads of her “Symbol” song through Friday morning (6/7/13): 

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PWN #94

Hello, listeners! Thank you for checking out the show notes for 21 May 2013, the 94th edition of the Pagan Weekly News.

Zaraccon and RevKess would like to thank the listener for tuning in, either live or in archive, and bringing them into your home, office or where ever it is you listen to PWN. Every week they strive to bring you the news from a Pagan perspective as well as talk about current issues in the global Pagan community. Often times you will hear one or both of them get up on their soap box on an issue, which you heard in this edition. You will also find them having fun, after all, if you are not having fun you are doing it wrong!

Links

RevKess and Zaracon would like to take a moment hear to pay respect to those who have lost their lives during the tornadoes that ripped through Oklahoma earlier this week. They are our in the hearts, thoughts, and prayers of many people across the United States and around the world. PMPChannel guest and musician, George Nicholas of Cernunnos Rising made a post to the official Facebook feed for Cernunnos Rising letting his fans know that the good people of Oklahoma are indeed in his thoughts and prayers. Faith Hamilton, a regular listener and sometimes guest on PMPChannel, a resident of Kentucky, has been keeping her FB peeps up to date on what is going on in her area as well as in the OKC area. To all the first responders, rescue personnel and everyone else who is working so very hard to make this tragedy easier for those who have suffered a loss of home, loved one, or propery: May the Gods bless you, each and everyone! You are truly heroes!

Music

  1. SJ Tucker – Alligator in the House – Sirens
  2. Omnia – Morrigan: I-The Maiden, II-The Mother, III-The Crone – Crone of War 
  3. Pagan Polka – SONA – Spoonwalk

What We Didn’t Have Time For

Sometimes there just is not enough time to get to everything that Z and RevKess want to cover. Here you will find some links to stories that there just wasn’t time for….

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PWN #92

The 92nd edition of Pagan Weekly News started out with a little back slapping from Heather Greene of the Covenant of the Goddess and The Wild Hunt. She wrote an article for PRN and TWH about “What is Pagan media?” Sometime in the very near future Ms Greene will be joining us on either an edition PWN or Pagan-Musings to talk about the Pagan Media and her work with CoG. We would like to have a panel discussion with various members of the Pagan Media, if you are a Pagan media person (journalist, blogger, podcaster, etc) who would like to participate in that conversation you can email us at paganmusings@gmail.com and we can go from there. Or you can contact us on our PWN Facebook page.

Peter Dybing outside the Glitter Dome, home of Kyrja and the Friends of Rupert

Peter Dybing outside the Glitter Dome, home of Kyrja and the Friends of Rupert

Peter Dybing called  in during the first half hour of the show to talk about his work with the Lady Liberty League in regards to Kyrja’s situation in Newport Richie, FL. The work that LLL and others have been doing there sounds extraordinary, but Peter stressed that is what is right about the Pagan community that LLL and others can and will step up to show support and provide certain services to others within the community when the need arises.

We later talked about Big Ag and Big Chemical in regards to the decline in the honeybee population world wide, including steps that some countries are taking to prevent that continued decline or assist in preserving the honeybee. We also talked about how religion is addressed in mainstream media and how religious illiteracy can be damaging to the population as a whole. We concluded with a little talk about some of the books that Zaracon and RevKess have been reading recently.

Links and articles:

Music:

  1. Didges Christ Super Drum – Stardust+Energy=Me – Alien Technology 
  2. Damh the Bard – Under a Beltane Sun – Antlered Crown & Standing Stone 
  3. Celia – Symbol Song 

Our humble thanks to Peter Beckley for playing fact checker for us on the honeybee topic, the further indented links in the above list are due to his diligence and research.