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As Mata H at BlogHer points out, this weekend marks a convergence of a number of religious festivals across a variety of faiths. For Jews, Purim has just been celebrated; contrary to what Joe Lieberman badly explained to John McCain, that's not "the Jews' Hallowe'en" but probably the most feminist day on the Jewish calendar, celebrating two courageous women, one Persian (that's my story and I'm sticking to it; now if I can only manage to get it on paper) and one Hebrew, the latter credited with saving her people from genocide. (The reason Passover is next month is because Jews stick in a "leap month" every few years, and Passover occurs this year on Adar II rather than Adar I. Oy, don't ask.) For Christians it's been Holy Week, culminating in Good Friday, Easter Sunday and, for Brits, the Easter Monday travel day. Hindus are commemorating Holi, Buddhists have Magha Puja Day, Muslims have Mawlid al-Nabi, and the descendents of the aforementioned Persians have the Festival of Noruz. Mata points out that this happens approximately once in a millennium, but most current religions only go back a few millennia anyway so I'm not sure that's really significant.

Here's the thing, though. This is a big deal for many people because we humans don't live for millennia. Most of us stretch out slightly under a century if we're lucky. But being human, we take comfort in what's come before us and what might come after us. We crave species immortality. Religious traditions are one of the ways we mark that. Even those of us with little use for religious dogma enjoy reading these myths and legends. We like to feel connected to a universal continuum of heroes vanquishing evil, of magical assistance and allies, of wicked deeds meeting just ends. And we want to believe the good things we accomplish today will be remembered by those who come after us.

This yearning for immortality is one of the main reasons I think religion is so strong, and so enduring. It's also one of the reasons I think that governments, which change fairly quickly compared to religious beliefs and customs, should ignore religion and just let it be. As humans, we may love the myths, but not everyone takes to the same myths. And legislating conformity of belief will never, ever come out well. Belief is a personal thing, even within adherents of the same religion. It's like legislating sexual habits. If enough commonly agreed upon societal taboos are violated, yeah, the practitioner will wind up on the wrong side of the law. But generally, between consenting adults -- none of Big Brother's biz, yes?

Which is why it's been so frustrating to hear all this talk lately about the 2008 presidential candidates' dealings with religious figures, particularly considering the pretty clear wording of Article 6 of the US Constitution. You know, the one that says "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." In the document that every one of these senators has sworn to uphold. Of course, we know it's an uphill battle when they swear to uphold the Constitution and its separation of church and state whilst their hand is on a Bible.

But as many point out, that separation is there for a reason, and that reason isn't to abolish all these different beliefs but to sustain them, to make people's religious rituals and practices beside the point of running a government. So people can whine about unsavory religious and political bedfellows all they want, and if Article 6 were actually adhered to it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference. Personally, I'd sooner trust someone who wasn't a member of any particular sect to leave others be; everyone else must be assumed to have something of a bias toward their own religion, particularly if they can't shut up about it.

And by "shut up" I mean "stop dragging it into politics," not "stop practicing it." If consenting adults want to flagellate themselves and stage re-enactments of actual cross nailings, as long as it isn't in our backyard (so to speak) it shouldn't be for nonbelievers to call them idiots, any more than it is for nonbelievers to cast aspersions on snake handlers in Appalachia. Their Scriptural misreadings carry their own punishment, just as the practices of Christians who choose to follow Jesus' message of love and peace see that as their own reward.

I don't care what they do, as long as it doesn't affect me. I have wacky beliefs too. I just tend not to bother other people with them. I do think there are ways for us to all live together with our individual beliefs (including the beliefs that other people's beliefs are wacky). All it takes is respect for fellow human beings, which a secular society encourages (at least theoretically) a lot more than a society built around one religious belief.

For some reason this date was sticking in my mind, and I knew it wasn't just because of Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras or Super-Duper Pooper-Scooper Tuesday. Then my friend Vastleft from Corrente reminded me -- it's the fifth anniversary of the day the US was to lose any remaining credibility and moral high ground it still held at the UN. It was also the day that a lot of us said, "oh well, there goes any chance of a moderate-leaning, intelligent, articulate black man making a serious and credible run at the Presidency."

On 5 February, 2003, the US Secretary of State Colin Powell completely capitulated to his White House masters and knowingly lied to the United Nations to make a case for the United States invading Iraq. Five years later we're still there, where we've no right to be, occupying a country in a state of chaos and bloodshed. Our once-sterling (if not entirely deserved) reputation as cavalry to the world, riding in on great white chargers to right every wrong, is in tatters. Our citizens are less safe and less free than they've been in half a century, the divide between rich and poor greater than at any time since the Gilded Age, and the promise that America once represented has nearly been obliterated (as the last good Republican president warned might happen) in the hands of a few selfish, radical oilmen.

But we're humans, no more nor less than anyone else in this world, and so we harbor hope. It's going to take years to regain any shred of credibility and reputation, but it starts with hope, and with hard work. And it starts with a citizenry united to see that hope and hard work through. And so today I cast my vote in the Democratic primary for Barack Obama -- despite misgivings which I would have had no matter who was running -- because he's effectively conveyed hope better than anyone else out there. And because we have to start somewhere.

Today is so-called Blogroll Amnesty Day, spearheaded by Jon Swift and skippy, wherein participants are supposed to extol and publicize those bloggers who don't get a lot of attention, aren't on the A-list, have very low hit counts, and in general ought to be better known. So I'm thinking, how many of the people currently on my blogroll, particularly on the political end, get lower hit counts than me? And as I checked my Site Meter and other stats, I realized: probably none. And then I immediately acknowledged, it's my own damn fault.

I've been blogging for over five years, but less and less of late. Sometimes I barely make one post per day. I don't know that I've done much more than Silly Sites, Friday Cat Blogging and blogaround link posts for maybe three months now. And my stats show it. I used to get around 200 daily hits; now it's down to maybe 80 if I'm lucky. And it's directly related to how much effort I put into writing here.

Comic book fans don't read Pen-Elayne regularly, because I don't write about comic books any more; I haven't been able to properly write about them since I used to keep up with my reading back when my job was in Manhattan and I went to the shop each Wednesday like other "early adopter" fans. The biggest comic-related thing I've ever done here was publish Robin's whistleblowing on CrossGen, and I think that day I got maybe 500 hits. Compared with Newsarama and The Beat, that's nothing. Besides, nowadays most of my comics-related stuff gets written for ComicMix.

My political friends, even the locals who used to invite me to NY blogger gatherings, have pretty much deserted me. Some probably kept me at arm's length to begin with, as I never seemed to toe whatever they considered to be the party line from moment to moment. I don't get that much pleasure out of demonizing anyone, for instance, even if their politics are diametrically opposed to my own. I refuse to consider most people as inherently evil for believing differently than I do. I'm used to most of the folks around me having opinions that diverge from my own, whether it's about cooking or comics or Congress. But at one party I distinctly remember, when I didn't agree with some point or other that was raised, the sudden accusation, "You're a Republican!" Coming from a family of lifelong Democrats I was kind of floored by that reaction, but by and by found it indicative of a lot of the echo-chamber mentality so prevalent in political bloggers of all stripes. Which makes it all the more ironic when these same liberal blogs delight in accusing right-wing blogs of being "the mighty Wurlitzer."

Then too, there's my outspoken opposition to the obsession many bloggers have with making money from their hobby. And yes, I'm aware many people don't see blogging as a hobby, or even a public service or civic duty, but I'm afraid that's my personal prejudice that I'm hard-pressed to shake. I know wanting to see a profit from your creative efforts is as legitimate a hope as having a political candidate who shares every single one of your values. It's just as unlikely to happen. There are tons of really good writers out there, and there's little incentive to pay for content in one place that you can get for free elsewhere. But some liberal bloggers can't see beyond their own overinflated sense of entitlement. And so they hold these periodic fundraisers to rake in money to pay for their blogging. I already have a computer with an internet connection, and I've never paid one additional penny to blog; I don't see why anyone should expect a handout for something which nobody's forcing them to do and which they can do for free. Sure enough, the great majority of these fundraisers are for people who already make a perfectly good living and honestly don't need the money as much as want it. And when I point this out, as I have time and again, I'm a killjoy, a traitor, a Republican.

So I'm kind of the rebel. I don't stick to one topic; I'm neither a political nor a comics blogger, neither a photoblogger nor a food blogger, neither a religion blogger nor a cat blogger. I'm just Elayne. And I don't stick to the pre-approved script; when bloggers go on an all-expenses-paid trip to Amsterdam, I'm the one who points out at what price they've been bought. When all-white bloggers brag about lunching with Bill Clinton in largely-black Harlem, I'm one of those wondering what happened to all the non-white bloggers, and making good on a promise to never again link to A-list liberal blogs that attack others who question this status-quo (blogs that also, not coincidentally, used blackface as humor). I don't demand readers pay for my hobby, and I'm not shy about mentioning repeatedly how wrong I think that is. And I don't like to echo what everyone else has already said.

Which is one of my main problems. If I'm not a bandwagon jumper, I'm not as noticed. But in my effort not to make that leap, I tend to wait until I've finished reading other blogs before opining about something, so as not to duplicate effort. And with one thing and another I often find myself with too many unread blogs at any one time to venture forth with my own blather. And that's wrong; I should never have to feel the need to wait until I've read what others have said about something to put in my own two cents. From this day forth, my promise to readers and to myself is to try and write more before reading. It's always better to go back to a post and add an update and link to what others have said about a topic than it is never to have written about it at all.

I'm going to write more this year. And it's not just going to be diary-type posts either. I'm engaged enough with the outside world in my offline life; you'll start to see that reflected more here at Pen-Elayne. Then when I wonder why I'm not on the blogrolls of writers I admire, or why my comments sections are so blank, I'll have more legitimate ground on which to stand. I want to again make Pen-Elayne a more attractive must-read blog for all of you.

Once again, if you still have me on your blogroll and don't see your name on my sidebar, or if you want to reciprocate blogrolling, please let me know ASAP; I would always like to blogroll anyone who blogrolls me (within reason). In the meantime, instead of hyping bloggers who doubtless all get more hits than I do by this point, I'm going to link to the three blogs remaining in the Guys in Waiting section of my Bloglines subs, guys whose blogs I like but who haven't blogrolled me, in the hopes that they someday will: Driftglass, Flawed Plan of Writhe Safely, and R.J. Eskow of Night Light. And I'm going to start working on becoming worthy of being blogrolled again.

Update: Thank you, Susie and Scott!

Wayne asked to see folks' blogspaces today. Here's mine.



Considering how boring this looks, and how much time it took to do on the PC with the new camera (had to install the driver and it still didn't work the way the old one had done because I'd opted not to install the other programs and Rob and I got into a little tiff over that), it really wasn't worth it. Maybe I'm just photo'ed out.

Okay, I decided to join the Blogswarm for Impeachment bandwagon after all. I made tea tonight.



Mmm, peach mint! It's Constitutionally delicious!

The Peace Train is celebrating its first blogiversary with a blogswarm invitation: "Help us celebrate our birthday by posting for peace on the Fourth of July. Our challenge this year is to reflect on 'Where we came from and where we are now.' This, of course, can mean many things, including but not limited to, the following questions:

* What is our individual responsibility in our eroding democracy? What do we need to do individually and collectively to restore our democracy and American values?

* Within our own borders, how do we create peaceful, violence-free communities?

* How do we create a language of peace, where our words and actions mesh with our values?

* Reflecting on our birth as a nation and the Declaration of Independence: How can we declare our independence from the domestic terrorism that our nation has helped to spread through the world?

* How do you see the role of the blogging community in forging a new standard of peace, both nationally and globally?"

I've chosen to pass along this invite rather than participate with an essay, because I don't know that peace has ever truly been with us. It's just so much easier to destroy than to create, and the human tendency is always to go for the easy way out; therefore, testosterone-driven warlike tendencies have so far always won out over sensible nurturing ones, at least on the societal level. Heck, we can't even get past envisioning peace as a starting point for prosperity, rather than an end-goal justifying warmongering means. Until the mindset about peace changes, I don't see much point in overly pontificating about a Utopian possibility so self-evident to me.

This is my contribution to the Blog Against Theocracy blogswarm, or blogburst, or whatever the kids are calling it these days.

Tomorrow is Easter, a pagan festival dedicated to the great mother goddess, or goddess of fertility, depending on whence the people of the moment hailed. It's also the one time in four years when the calendars of five major Christian faiths, all of whom mark the day as the time when Jesus was resurrected, coincide with one another. In addition, Passover is still being celebrated; I know this because The Ten Commandments is on TV as I type (a terrific story even given the utter lack of historical evidence for any basis in truth). Also, there's a bunch of matzoh in the house. And I'm sure people more familiar with Islam and with Asian religions can cite other festivals of faith going on now.

And all of this has always fascinated me, the way different human beings all have different myths to explain the unknowable, to give comfort in hard times, and to celebrate with community the changing of the seasons and years. Of particular interest is the similar stories that weave their way through different cultures (such as the uncanny correlations in rituals following a loved one's death between Judaism and Hinduism, the oldest major religion and the third largest in the world today) and evolve to suit the times (such as how much Christian celebrations appropriated from pagan festivals). Religion, like government, is an ever-changing aspect of our civilization.

But people who seek to use religion for their own gain count on adherents tend not to see things that way. And when they're successful, the result is not very good for many of those adherents. As The Truffle notes:

If you look at how theocracies are run, you notice that good works are not high on the list of priorities. Theocrats generally do not spread God's will by opening shelters for needy families. They do not collect clothes to give to poor people. They don't run soup kitchens or teach songs to kids. They don't publish religious story books. They don't do anything constructive or fun. No, theocrats spend a lot of time banning things and punishing people.

People who crave rule by religion have a very narrow, very myopic, and often very opposite interpretation of said religion than do the flocks of the faithful.

There are a lot of up-sides to community, but one of the down-sides is that they do often tend to react like sheep. (Not for nothing does the ovian motif keep cropping up in religious observances.) While there is strength in numbers, there's also a coresponding weakness, a desire to blend in with the crowd and not question traditions. But civilization, language, everything about us as humans is an ongoing, evolving thing. Nothing stays the same over time, and our relatively short individual lifespans can work against our understanding of this basic truism. Nothing is immutable. And yes, two millennia or six or more is a good run for a belief system, but it's a blink of an eye in the overall cosmic scheme of things.

Ordinarily I wouldn't mind so much if people can't accept that. It's a lot to absorb, and if it goes against what one has been taught for much of one's life it's no wonder so many can't grasp it. But when "my religion is immutable" turns into "and therefore its precepts are the only ones that are true and I must make everyone follow them, by force if necessary," that's where I have major problems.

Our government is set up to prevent the tyranny of the majority. I have never been a member of a majority religion, nor am I ever likely to be. My religion is, for me, usually a private matter between me and my deity of choice. I am as uncomfortable with public spectacles and displays of religion as I am with public displays of jingoism. It all reminds me just a bit too much of Leni Riefenstahl films. It's bad enough that so much of what's going on in the US now is reminiscent of Germany in the 1930s; I don't need self-appointed religious leaders acting like that too.

Besides, I'm not all that enamored of any religion that relegates women, half the population, to second-class status. And unfortunately that's most of the major religions operating in this country today. Including the one into which I was born.

Recommended so far: blog posts against theocracy by Tristero's series and Terrance at Pam's House Blend. To find out more about how to get involved to keep private religious matters separate from the public sphere where folks of many beliefs -- and no beliefs -- have to work together, visit First Freedom First.

Whee, today is PZ Myers' 50th birthday! Let's put on our party hats!


Hey, how'd that get there?

Pictures swiped from here and here. I don't know that anyone could really do Suicide Squid justice -- well, except perhaps in a somewhat lame Myers-mandated poem, of course. Or in my case, song parody.

The Ballad of Suicide Squid
with apologies to Billy Joel

From the days of the rec.arts.comics newsgroups
Came a cephalopod who used to be a kid
And his boring life of ease
Underneath the seven seas
Earned him the name of Suicide Squid

Well, he put his tentacle inside a toaster
But forgot he couldn't plug the darned thing in
He tried maiming, he tried knives
It seemed he had too many lives
And he thought suicide was a sin

Well his attitude was heavy, so he always swam alone
And his sulks put many other squid to shame
And they say that he was friendless, but I think he had a clone
It's a comic book thing, they just change the name

From a town up in coldest Minnesota
Came a man with a penchant for the squid
And some other cephalopod
Though you think that may be odd
That's just the kind of thing Doc Myers did...

Well, that's quite enough of that. Happy number 50, PZ. I'm right behind you, by about 9 months...

Still no responses at all to my first three EM posts. Please spread the word, I'd like this to be as participatory as possible. If I don't hear from anyone by the end of today I'll choose one person anyway from the names I'll have mentioned so far in my EM posts, and put her on the Kultcha section of my sidebar blogroll.

I've affixed the graphic below on the sidebar until next Thursday, which of course is also International Women's Day:



Click for the full details. As it was last year, this is being organized by vegankid, who also has some great recent posts up at her blog for Black History Month.

But as vegankid appears to blog more from the political than cultural end, I wanted to highlight another pop-culture feminist blogger today who's not yet on my sidebar, Shelly from Shelly's Comic Book Shelf. Of particular interest to me was her recent post Things I'm Pondering, which begins "I've been reading a lot in the comics blogosphere lately about feminism in comics, female characters, exploitation of same, costume issues, gratuitous ass shots, etc. I've read arguments from one end to the other. We support what's there when we buy it, so do we have the right to complain? Do comics publishers owe us anything? I have no answers, just questions right now." Naturally, the questions she asks are all good food for thought. She's also posted about Manhunter, the book my husband is currently inking, being saved once more from the chopping block, but since she doesn't mention any of the creative people on the book at all she loses points for that, all of which she gains back immediately because her post inspired a comment from me (and a subsequent post from her and another comment from me) that I have expanded into my next ComicMix column. Thanks Shelly!

The guidelines for nominating and voting for feminist pop-culture bloggers during Estrogen Month are outlined here. On a separate but related note, as mentioned yesterday, this blog will be hosting the 12th Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans; click on that last link to see the guidelines, etc.