Tag Archives: Politics

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PWN 2016.1.2: 2016 US Presidential Campaign Season

KaliSara and RevKess talked politics in this edition of the Pagan Weekly News. As the show went live the Republican debate was nearing its close. Both your hosts had been watching the debate up until show time and were prepared to talk about some of the same issues that were brought up on Fox Business Network’s sponsored debate. RevKess and KaliSara had also watched the State of the Union earlier in the week.

 

Listed here are some of the links to articles, issues, and topics that were discussed during this edition of PWN:

And here some of the stories the hosts ran out of time for:

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PWN 2015.3.4: Here we go again

This week’s edition of PWN had a few hiccups. For that we apologize. We do want to thank you for muddling through our audio issues and listening to the show, nonetheless. KaliSara was a bit under the weather and was unable to participate. RevKess managed to slog through on his own. Talking about everything from RFRA’s to Workers’ Compensation, from Pagan music news and upcoming book releases. this edition will tackle a lot of bad and some very good news.

RevKess and KaliSara welcome your comments both here and on the Facebook page for Pagan Weekly News.

Links to Articles and Topics Covered

Music

  1. SJ Tucker – Go Away Godboy  – Sirens
  2. Heather Dale – The Poachers – The Green Knight
  3. Wendy Rule – The Serpent of Silver – Guided by Venus
  4. Jenna Greene – Spring Love – Crosroads
  5. Tuatha Dea – The Sky is Falling – Tuatha Dea

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PWN 2015.3.1: Floating in a State of Confusion

For the week of Wednesday 4 March 2015 KaliSara and RevKess attempted to explain some of the murkiness that is in the world today. They may not have succeeded in anything other than shedding some of their own perspectives on the issues they discussed, but they hope that the listener gains some kind of an understanding of those issues.

Topics

  • Netanyahu before Congress: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his third appearance before a joint session of Congress in the United States. He was invited to speak before Congress by Speaker of the House John Boehner, bypassing the traditional invitation source of the White House and the Office of the President. You can watch the video of his speech through the New York Times YouTube channel and read the transcript on the Washington Post.
  • Hillary Clinton’s private email: The House Benghazi Panel is questioning former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email address to correspond with staffers, elected officials, and other politicians during her time in that office. Some question if she handed over print outs of all her official and work related emails when she left that cabinet post as well as if all official correspondence sent to government email addresses were indeed backed up on official servers. The Wall Street Journal has coverage. Jacob Gershman takes a legal view on the issue on the WSJ Law Blog.
  • AIDS – gorilla connection, abstinence: A recently published study indicates that 50% or more of the lineages of HIV-1 can be linked to the consumption of gorilla bushmeat in Africa and then transmitted through sex. A cost-benefit analysis study by Stanford Medical School student Nathan Lo shows that a ten year $1.3 billion dollar program to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa through abstinence and fidelity classes has been a failure, showing no “measurably change sexual behavior and was largely wasted.”
  • What are our world leaders really trying to do?
    • KaliSara and RevKess do not currently have any links for this topics. There are numerous opinions out there on what various leaders want to do. Both hosts agree that many political and world leaders say they have good intentions, and many of them truly do, but that many of those same leaders are also very human – self serving.
    • Next week’s edition of PWN will address this topic in a vague manner as the hosts discuss what, in the United States, religious and secular non-profits can and cannot do or say in regards to politics. Campaign season is starting for the Oval Office and other seats in federal, state, and local governments.

MUSIC

  1. Damh the Bard – Pagan Ways – Cauldron Born
  2. Sharon Knight – Song of the Sea – Song of the Sea Sharon Knight is conducting an IndieGoGo campaign to support her newest musical project, Portals, which will include a CD, a music video and an art book. You can learn more about her campaign at www.SharonKnightPortals.net.
  3. Arthur Hinds – The Water’s Rising – Dance in the Fire
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PWN 2015.1.3: Controversy in the Pagan World

The Pagan Weekly News for thursday 29 January 2015 found RevKess and KaliSara trying to tackle the general theme of Controversy in the Pagan World. Not an easy task. They began with a brief conversation about political conroversies in the United States and moved on talking about the stolen and desecrated statue of Manannan mac Lir in Ireland before moving into talk about #BlackLivesMatter and the Covenant of the Goddess missteps in addressing that theme.

Links

POLITICS

MANANNAN mac LIR

#BLACKLIVESMATTER & COVENANT of the GODDESS

  • Covenant of the Goddess and other Pagan organizations release statements on racism in November and December of 2014, in response to repeated reports of police brutality and excessive force.
  • Peter Dybing, writing on his personal blog Pagan in Paradise, issued a social indictment of CoG. That post has since been removed from his site. An earlier post on the topic of #BlackLivesMatter and the CoG statement cane be found here.
  • CoG issued a revised statement pending consensus vote in August 2015.
  • Peter Dybing writes again on the issue of minorities in Paganism.
  • Coverage from The Wild Hunt
  • Torn Coyle writes about racism
  • Shauna Aura Knight writes about racism in Paganism
  • Shauna Aura Knight, on PaganActivist.com, admits she is a racist

TWO EVENTS on the SAME DAY in the SAME REIGION

OTHER PAGAN NEWS

MUSIC

  1. Heartbeat – Warrior Within
  2. Celia – Song for Manannan – digital single
  3. Wendy Rule – Creator Destroyer – The Wolf Sky
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PWN: War, war is stupid and people are stupid….

Fair warning, on this edition of the Pagan Weekly News both RevKess and Zaracon get up on their soapboxes. Way up!

War is a topic that no one really wants to talk about. Unfortunately it is the topic on a lot of people’s minds these days. In the United States, the Middle East, Russia, and elsewhere around the globe. Neither Zaracon nor RevKess have served in the military, but they know many people who have or are currently serving active duty. RevKess’s father served over seas during the Korean “Conflict” (War) and several of his nieces and nephews have been in the Middle East during the second Gulf War. War, conflict, strife. It all touches us somewhere and somehow. Whether we are at work, serve in the military, or know someone who is. It touches us all.

Before diving into the meat and bones of the main topic for the show, Z and Kess spoke briefly about crowd sourcing and funding. Taylor Ellwood recently published an article on that very topic on the Agora for Patheos Pagan Channel. The Pagan-Musings Podcast Channel has been a big proponent of crowd sourcing and plans to continue to be so. Having helped with projects for Tuatha Dea, Brendan Myers, Frenchy and the Punk, The New Alexandrian Library, and many others.

“I’m fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.”~George McGovern

A note about the Israeli-Palestinian War: Heather Greene, columnist on The Wild Hunt and National Public Information Officer for Covenant of the Goddess, encouraged RevKess to reach out to Pagans in the Gaza area. Several false starts later he concluded that technology was not going to allow it to happen. Facebook messages and other attempts met with error messages and software failures. There are Pagans in that area and the hosts of PWN hope to be able to give them a voice in the near future.

 

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Call it a conflict, call it a war. The military shambles in the Gaza Strip have been going on for decades, if not centuries. Here are some links to articles that give background and current information on the war in the Israeli-Palestinian area.

More from the Middle East

Russia and the Ukraine

In Pagan News

MUSIC

  1. PWN intro courtesy DragonSong
  2. Culture Club – War Song (clip)
  3. Damh the Bard – Sons & Daughters of Robin Hood – Antlered Crown & Standing Stone
  4. SJ Tucker – Poem of War – Ember Days
  5. Heather Dale – United at War – Call the Names
  6. Paradiso & Rasamayi – Wisdom Warrior – Attuning to Oneness
  7. SJ Tucker – Alligator in the House – Sirens

 

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Lavender Hill: Heartland Pride & More

LHv6A

Click to Listen

Anthony Tirendi, president of Heartland Pride in the Omaha, Ne metro area, joined Corwin and Phil in the studio this week for a conversation about Pride, specifically about Heartland Pride. Anthony had never been on the radio before, but he did well. Pride this year in the Omaha air covers three days of official Heartland activities. Some of the local bars, churches and other organizations may also be hosting pride events around the metro area.

  • THURSDAY JUNE 26th: 8:00 PM Candlelight vigil and 9:00 PM viewing of the movie “MILK” atHeartland Pride 2014 logo Hanafan Park in Council Bluffs, IA
  •  FRIDAYJUNE 27th: 6:00 PM Youth Pride festival and evening dance at Hanafan Park in Council Bluffs, IA
  • SATURDAY JUNE 28th: 10:00 AM Heartland Pride Parade in Council Bluffs, IA followed by:  11:00 AM Festival and Entertainment to begin after the parade at Stinson Park in Omaha, NE

The Saturday festival has three main musical acts, all local to the area. Eckophonic, Voodoo Method!, and Recess Girls. The Recess Girls will also be in the Kid Corner after their stage appearance to meet with fans.

There is a small entry fee to attend the main event. Tickets can be purchased in advance through the website for $5 or at the gate for $10.

Lavender Hill being a news program, as well as a talk show, the hosts had some local, national and world news to talk about. Not nearly as much time for news as usual, but they squeezed some things in. It should be noted that many of the below links will take you to stories Corwin and Phil did not have to talk about this week.

Links to News Stories Covered During the Show

Marriage Equality

  • A brief opinion piece from the Lincoln Journal Star expresses the disappointment many have with the recent decision to deny the divorce of a lesbian couple in Nebraska.
  • Opponents to marriage equality in Pennsylvania missed the deadline to file an appeal to the decision to over turn the ban on same-sex marriage. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum remains largely silent on the matter despite his past vocal stance on the issue.
  • South Dakota attorney general files to dismiss “implausible” marriage case. You can read the motion here.
  • The Presbyterian Assembly affirms that same-sex marriage is Christian. A vote is pending from all 172 presbyteries over the course of the next year to make it official. Until then, effective now is an amendment to the church constitution allowing ministers to perform gay marriages in state and municipalities where it is legal with approval from local congregational leaders.
  • A Michigan man is “shunned” by St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Marquette after his commitment ceremony shows that he “acts on’ urges.
  • The National Organization for Marriage claims 10.000 people attended their anti-gay marriage rally in D.C. last week. More accurate estimates say between two and six thousand attended.

Across the United States

Politics

  • The Senate made history last Tuesday by confirming, unanimously, the first openly gay African American judge to a high court. Darrin Gayles now sits on the bench for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
  • The Texas GOP has some wacky ideas on their current political platform. Everything from pornography, the elderly, immigration and marriage equality.
  • Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass) has introduced a new bill that would create a special envoy for LGBT rights in foreign affairs. The International Human Rights Defense Act already has 20 co-sponsors, all Democrats.
  • CNBC’s Joe Kerner schools Texas Gov. Rick Perry on-air after Perry’s statements in California that copared homosexuality to alcoholism.

Queer World News

Health & Science

Arts & Entertainment

  • A Kickstarter campaign. is in full swing to support the filming of the first transgender comedy, staring Canada’s first transgender lingerie model Julie Vu.

Remember to tune in every Sunday at 11am Central to KZUM-HD/KZUM-Lincoln to hear Lavender Hill live. You can email Corwin and Phil at lavenderhill89.3@gmail.com and follow the show on Twitter.

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Lavender Hill for 15 June 2014

LHv6AAs usual, Corwin and Phil tried to cram a lot of news into one hour, almost having to skip some of the music they had planned for the day. Rest assured, they did get all five pieces of music played. You can find the list of music at the end of this posting. Unfortunately the jump drive Phil was using to record the show malfunctioned, so there is not a podcast feed of the show at this time.

The lead story on Sunday 15 June 2014 was an update on the divorce appeal case before the Nebraska State Supreme Court. A lesbian couple wed in Iowa in 2009 filed for divorce in Lancaster County Nebraska. The divorce was denied on the grounds that it would require the state to recognize the marriage in the first place. Bonnie Nichols, one of the women involved, filed appeal with the State Supreme Court. According to an Associated Press article, the appeal was denied by the State with some wiggle room for a new appeal. LGBTQNation carried the article, along with many online and print media sources.

LINKS to ARTICLES

(not all were referred to during the broadcast) in no particular order

MUSIC

  1. Ryan Amador & Jo Lampert – Define Me – Ryan Amador
  2. Candye Kane – I Didn’t Listen to MY Heart – Songs from the Stage
  3. Sam Smith – Stay with Me – In the Lonely Hour
  4. Doug Strahm – Slumbertown – Freedom Rings
  5. Patricia Barber – You Don’t Me – Night Club

Remember to tune in every Sunday morning for the full live broadcast of Lavender Hill on KZUM-HD/KZUM-Lincoln. Listen on the web, on the radio (in Lincoln, NE) at 89.3FM, or use your favorite mobile listening app. You can find Lavender Hill on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Subscribe to the Lavender Hill Daily to get a daily dose of LGBTQA related news.

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Lavender Hill for 8 June 2014

Lavender Hill airs live every Sunday morning at 11am Central on KZUM-HD/KZUM-Lincoln out of Lincoln, NE. For over three years Corwin and Phil have brought their listeners news, views, and interviews from the LGBTQIAA community with a focus on Lincoln and Omaha.

LINKS

In no particular order, here are links to much of what we discussed on this edition of Lavender Hill. Some may be to stories we didn’t have time to cover.

  • The Texas GOP has approved a platform for their 2014 campaign season that endorses reparative therapy, also known as conversion therapy. Reparative therapy has been shown to cause more harm than good. Developed decades ago to “cure” people of homosexuality, many states have already banned its use with adolescents and many psychologists and psychiatrists are pushing for it to be removed as an acceptable means of treatment for adults as well. Even former “x-gays” have made apologies for encouraging people to use reparative therapy.  The International of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses issued a position paper in 2001 on reparative therapy, you can read it here.
  • The legislative arm of Salt Lake City’s government has formally asked the organizers o the Days of ’47 Parade to reconsider their decision to disallow Mormons Building Bridges from participating in this year’s parade. Days of ’47 celebrates the mass migration of Mormons to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. I have news for our Mormon friends, there were queer Mormons in 1847 and there are queer Mormons in 2014. Check out the official page for Mormons Building Bridges to learn more about this organization.
  • In related news, a police officer in Salt Lake City was suspended after refusing to work police security at the annual Gay Pride Parade.
  • In more Pride news, for the first time the US Armed Forces Color Guard will be participating in the Washington D.C. Pride. In 2013 an Armed Forces color guard did perform on the grounds of the Pentagon for a Defense Department pride event, and another performed there again this year.
  • Sex like gender is more fluid than most are willing to believe. Conservative blogger Kevin D. Williamson on National Review said that famous transgender actress Laverne Cox (Orange is the New Black) is not a woman. Ms. Cox graces the cover of a recent edition of  Time Magazine. Slate.com has a lengthy article discussing the fluidity of sex as well as gender, with plenty of links for more information.
  • Puerto Rico has nominated its first openly lesbian lawyer to the Supreme Court. Maite Oronzo Rodriguez was nominated by Governor Rico Alejandro Garcia Padilla on 4 June.
  • Actor John Lacy gets a standing ovation, but not for his role as Big Daddy in a production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Lacy threw a heckler and homophobe out of the audience in Act II. He was then fired by the director for his actions.
  • In a Rand Paul conference call, Republican E.W. Jackson says that “there is something wrong with them on the inside” in reference to LGBT people and liberals, that they are full of “hatred”.
  • General Mills and Lucky Charms cereal launched their second Lucky To Be campaign on 2 June. Read about it here and then visit the Lucky To Be site.
  • Woodrow Wilson High School principal Pete Cahall comes out to his students during their 2nd annual Pride event in D.C.
  • Last month Iowa rewrote the law that criminalized HIV transmission and this month in a symbolic gesture two men convicted of exposing their partners to HIV (knowingly or not) were freed from their GPS monitors.
  • On 4 June the constitution of Slovokia was amended to ban same-sex marriage, IGLA-Europe issues a statement condemning the act.
  • In related news, the CDC and DOJ have released a report on the 33 states (67 laws) that have criminalized HIV transmission since 1987. POZ Magazine’s Ron Valdiserri wrote this op-ed piece in April of this year.
  • The United Nations is treading thin ice with the global LGBTQIAA community with the nomination of Ugandan Samuel Kutesa to the presidency of the General Assembly. No member nation has yet voiced a formal protest. Kutesa has even received support from US Secretary of State John Kerry and UK Foreign Minister William Hague. Kutesa serves as Uganada’s Foreign Minister under the anti-gay leadership of President Museveni, who recently signed into law severe punishments for homosexuality.
  • Laura Jane Grace, lead singer for the metal band Against Me!, has been the recent target of Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists (view this site to learn about RadFems). The Twitter back-and-forth can be seen here. We couldn’t read the Twitter comments over the air for obvious reasons (if you take a look). The host stream (Pagan-Musings Podcast Channel) for the podcast version of Lavender Hill has had an ongoing conversation about certain elements of the RadFem movement, specifically the Dianic Wicca founder Z. Budapest and her banning of transgender women from official rituals and gatherings (pt. 1, pt. 2, pt. 3).
  • MS. Magazine has an informative op-ed piece on their blog on TransFeminism – worth the read!
  • One of the most vocal opponents of Texas’s “bathroom bill”, that would allow trans people to use the bathroom of their self-identified gender, has been shown to be a sexual predator himself. Pastor Baker, who has worked as a city chaplain, has expressed his belief that allow transwomen to use the women’s bathroom would allow a potential predator into the same bathroom as a six year old girl. Baker was suspended and later fired in the past for sexually harassing female employees.
  • In Maryland the “bathroom bill” was passed and signed into law by the governor. But State Delegate Neil Parrot (R) started a referendum to reverse that law. For the sake of all Marylanders, that referendum failed.
  • A transgender man in New York is suing the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation for discrimination. The man is still in transition and was denied use of the more private locker rooms reserved for handicapped people and families. Staff at a public pool reportedly told him to use the women’s locker room.
  • One of the suspects in the recent Atlanta beating of a transgender woman on their mass transit system claims that “transgender women provoke” such attacks. Much of the incident was caught on video by witnesses, the video and the witnesses could not clarify how the altercation started.
  • Perhaps the first transgender murder victim for 2014 in the United States was identified in Baltimore earlier this month. Kandy Hall was found earlier on 3 June in a field in Northeast Baltimore. TransGroit also blogs about the murder.
  • As of Friday 6 June 2014 all 31 states that currently ban same-sex marriages have lawsuits filed in either state or federal courts challenging those states’ bans. North Dakota was the last of the 31 to join in the battle on this level.
  • GOProud, the LGBT Republican group, is “re-branding”, or is that “dis-banning”?
  • Robert Garcia is the first three times around in Long Beach, CA. The first Latino mayor, the youngest, and the first openly gay mayor.
  • Shooting victim from the 2013 San Francisco Pride event is suing the SF Pride Committee for $10mil, citing a lack of security made it possible for the shooter to enter the event site with a gun.

Upcoming Pride Events in the Lincoln & Omaha Area

  • Heartland Pride is right around the corner. This the Omaha Metro area’s annual LBTQIA (etc) Pride event and is hosted every year in Omaha and Council Bluffs. Visit their website to learn more and see the calendar of events. The main events will be on Saturday 28 June in Council Bluffs and Stinson Park in Omaha.
  • Star City Pride is about a month away. Star City Pride is the Pride event in Lincoln, NE. Hosted in part by Panic Bar, the main event is a street party with vendors, information booths, and live entertainment outside the Panic, this year on Saturday 12 July.
  • The 4th annual Prairie Pride Film Festival will be 24-26 July at the Mary Riepma Ross Theatre  in Lincoln, NE.
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PWN #59: Guest Host Deirdre Hebert

Pagan Weekly News #59, live air date 09/10/12, 7pm Central

Deirdre Hebert, host of PaganFM on WSCA-LP Community radio out of Portsmouth, NH, sat in for Zaracon on this week’s edition of the Pagan Weekly News. The theme of the show was especially intriguing to her and made her acceptance of RevKess’s invitation that much easier. What was the theme? “Politicians at War with Liberal America?”

Topics that were addressed during this edition included:

  • The War on Women
  • The War on Terrorism
  • The War on Drugs
  • The War on Religion
  • The Republican National Convention
  • The Democratic National Convention
  • The 2012 Paralympics in London, UK and the British  Druid Order’s involvement.
  • The novels and non-fiction works of Ellen Evert Hopman
  • and many other sub topics and points of interest

Listeners in the chat room brought up some interesting points, including the use of the phrase “war on…” being a misnomer and just adding confusion to the whole idea of handling these various issues in the political arena.