Oh, That Betty Brown

From the great state of Texas comes this:

Texas lawmaker: Asians should change their names to make them ‘easier for Americans to deal with.’

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.

Brown later told [Organization of Chinese Americans representative Ramey] Ko: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”

Sleeping under Venus and the Crescent Moon

My own picture was awful. I looked through stock images to find this one, roughly the same orientation as I saw it on my way home from the hospital. Our moon, though, is a slender sliver and not tilted. We also can't see the dark of the moon as distinctly.

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The hospital's parking garage is color- and fruit-coded. G is green, the ground floor and grapes. Red is 2 and apples. Yellow is 3 and bananas. Each time I leave my truck, I make note of my parking position and the route I take to the elevator. Under stress and fatigue, I know my head is not working so well, so I do this as a precaution. I even thought about writing it down, but so far my method has been sufficient. I worry anyway.

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Tonight, as usual, I noted that I was on red (apple) level, and I parked in a beeline toward the elevator, noted I had to go up one flight of stairs and down another before reaching it. After a tumultuous night, I was especially concerned that I wouldn't find the truck again. As it was, as I drove round and round, following the exit lights, I answered my internal question, "I must have found the truck, because here I am driving it. That's proof enough, yes?" I agreed it was.

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My wise uncle, Daykeeper of the Mayan calendar and magus of labyrinths, sent me some information on the cosmic phenomenon occurring tonight. He was right about one thing, it had distracted me last night, and it distracted me again as I was driving home tonight.

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Dear Friends, [writes my uncle]

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This evening--towards the end of this 2 Manik day, as the 3 Lamat energies are stirring--if your skies are clear, you will be able to look up in the southwest to see a magnificent pairing of the crescent Moon immediately adjacent to outrageously brilliant Venus. No doubt, the Maya will be having a festival tonight, on the eve of their Lamat (Venus) day!!

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All this, while, in the eastern sky (but visible only with binoculars), is the comet Lulin, fast working its way past us on its course through the Solar System in a path opposite-in-direction to Earth's orbit. Its distinctly greenish hue makes it seem like an errant leprechaun prancing for our amusement in anticipation of St. Patrick's day. It is in Cancer right now, but by St. Paddy's Day, it'll be in Gemini (yea for us Geminis!). With its reverse orbit and greenish tail(s), it is a present reminder of Heyoka energy in our midst.

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In Lak'esh (I am another you), [Uncle]

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On Friday evening, February 27, 2009: Be careful, this sort of thing can cause an accident!

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Feb. 27th, the 10% crescent Moon will glide by Venus, forming a gorgeous and mesmerizing pair of lights in the sunset sky. Moon-Venus conjunctions are not unusual, but this conjunction has some special qualities:(1) Venus is at maximum brightness: magnitude -4.6. The planet is twenty times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. It is so luminous that it can actually shine through thin clouds and cast subtle shadows on the ground.(2) As seen from North America, the Moon-Venus separation is only a little more than 1-degree. Stick up your thumb and hold it out at arm's length. Venus and the Moon will fit comfortably behind the thumb-tip. Tight conjunctions like this are the most beautiful of all.(3) Not only is the Moon a crescent, but so is Venus. A small telescope pointed at the glittering planet will reveal a slender 20%-illuminated disk.

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Add it all together and you've got a major distraction. Evening drivers should pull to the verge. Staring at Venus and the Moon could be riskier than texting!

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My view of the conjunction was of a point of light in the lead of an arcing vessel, as though the light was pulling a craft along through the sky. I will take it as a sign of a journey and pray for a safe one.

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Good night, friends, relatives and lovers. Sleep well.

Chain Email Filled with Hate

I received a disturbing email today. It said that the reason for our national debt has absolutely nothing to do with the Iraq War. Instead, it's illegal aliens. Yes, it's all the fault of these illegals that the U.S. is going bankrupt. Fourteen reasons were given for how illegals cost us all this money. All were offensive. All based on twisted logic, ignorance and hypocrisy.

Some were based purely on racial prejudice, things like illegal aliens are criminals, so it costs us money to arrest them and keep them in our prisons. Wait, it gets worse. "In particular," states one reason on the list, "their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US." While most of my readers sit in stunned silence, I want to clarify that the misplaced commas were in the quote, not of my doing.

There were 14 reasons, as I said. The fourteenth is the work of evil minds.

"14. 'The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One million sex crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants in the United States.' Verify at: http:// www.drdsk.com/articleshtml ."

Don't bother to click that link; "The web page can't be found."

The email concluded with a request to forward it in chain mail fashion, but only to "every legal resident in the country...." I won't be forwarding, by the way.

If someone would like the information for the purpose of publicly shredding it to bits, point by point, email me with a request, and I'll send you the list.